The early-type close binary CV Velorum revisited^*

¹ Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200 B, 3001 Leuven, Belgium e-mail: conny@ster.kuleuven.be
² Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Ege University, 35100 İzmir, Turkey
³ Department of Astrophysics, University of Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Received: 26 April 2006
Accepted: 25 January 2007

Abstract

Aims.Our goal was to improve the fundamental parameters of the massive close double-lined eclipsing B2.5V+B2.5V binary CV Velorum.

Methods.We gathered new high-resolution échelle spectroscopy on 13 almost consecutive nights covering two orbits. We computed a simultaneous solution to all the available high-quality radial-velocity and light data with the latest version of the Wilson-Deviney code.

Results.We obtained the following values for the physical parameters: , , , , , and . The quoted errors contain a realistic estimate of systematic uncertainties mainly stemming from the effective temperature estimation. We derived abundances for both components and found them to be compatible with those of B stars in the solar neighbourhood. We discovered low-amplitude periodic line-profile variations with the orbital frequency for both components. Their interpretation requires new data with a longer time span. The primary rotates subsynchronously while the secondary's and radius are compatible with synchronous rotation. We provide an update of the empirical mass-luminosity relation for main-sequence B stars which can be used for statistical predictions of masses or luminosities.