Research Note

Astrometric mass ratios for three spectroscopic binaries

¹ Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin Des Maillettes, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
e-mail: johannes.sahlmann@unige.ch
² Center of Excellence in Information Systems, Tennessee State University, 3500 John A. Merritt Boulevard, Box 9501, Nashville, TN 37209, USA
e-mail: fekel@evans.tsuniv.edu

Received: 13 June 2013
Accepted: 10 July 2013

Abstract

The orbits of five single-lined spectroscopic binaries have recently been determined. We now use astrometric measurements that were collected with the Hipparcos satellite to constrain the systems’ mass ratios and secondary masses. The barycentric astrometric orbits of three binary systems, HD 140667, HD 158222, and HD 217924, are fully determined and precise estimates of their mass ratios are obtained. Follow-up of these systems with infrared spectroscopy could yield model-independent dynamical masses for all components.