Eclipsing Am binary systems in the SuperWASP survey

¹ Astrophysics Group, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG, UK
e-mail: b.smalley@keele.ac.uk
² Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica-CONICET, 4000 Tucumán, Argentina
³ Institut d’Astrophysique et de Géophysique, Université de Liège, allée du 6 août 17, Sart Tilman, Liège 1, Belgium
⁴ Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
⁵ SUPA, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh KY16 9SS, UK
⁶ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
⁷ Department of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
⁸ Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Apartado de Correos 321, 38700 Santa Cruz de la Palma, Tenerife, Spain
⁹ N. Copernicus Astronomical Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland

Received: 29 November 2013
Accepted: 26 February 2014

Abstract

The results of a search for eclipsing Am star binaries using photometry from the SuperWASP survey are presented. The light curves of 1742 Am stars fainter than V = 8.0 were analysed for the presence of eclipses. A total of 70 stars were found to exhibit eclipses, with 66 having sufficient observations to enable orbital periods to be determined and 28 of which are newly identified eclipsing systems. Also presented are spectroscopic orbits for 5 of the systems. The number of systems and the period distribution is found to be consistent with that identified in previous radial velocity surveys of “classical” Am stars.