A photometric and spectroscopic study of the eclipsing symbiotic binary AX Persei^*

¹ Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 059 60 Tatranská Lomnica, Slovakia
² Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy
³ Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan

Corresponding author: A. Skopal, skopal@ta3.sk

Received: 27 July 2000
Accepted: 7 November 2000

Abstract

We analysed photometric and spectroscopic optical observations of the eclipsing symbiotic binary AX Persei. For the first time, we present and discuss its historical, 1887-1999, photographic/B-band and visual light curve (LC). The red giant in AX Per losses mass via the wind at a rate of . The terminal velocity of the wind is . We estimated an effective radius of the Hii nebula during the post-outburst stage (to JD 2450000) to be of and its average electron concentration for the electron temperature T_e = 1-1.5 10⁴ K. The [Oiii] nebula in AX Per is rather dense, having the electron concentration n_e([Oiii]) for T_e = 1-1.5 10⁴ K. Spectroscopic observations made in the middle of the 1992.8 and 1994.7 eclipses showed that a significant part of flux emitted in the Hi, Heii and nebular [Oiii] lines originates in the vicinity of the hot component. Transition of AX Per to its nebular phase occurred at/around JD 2450000. A small ∼0.6 mag brightening at that time and consequently very broad wave-like variation in the LC developed. This event was caused by dilution of a shell around the hot star, during which about of 1.5 10⁵⁰ particles (∼ ) were injected into the ionized region.