Bibcode
Martin, E. L.; Gimenez, A.; Claret, A.
Referencia bibliográfica
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.302, p.741
Fecha de publicación:
10
1995
Revista
Número de citas
22
Número de citas referidas
20
Descripción
EK Cep is a double-lined eclipsing binary system with unique
characteristics. Accurate absolute dimensions are available, a good
determination of the surface lithium abundance has been made, the system
is known to show apsidal motion variations, and its secondary component
seems to be in the pre main sequence phase. Due to all this, it appears
to be a very good candidate to test predictions made on the basis of
currently adopted stellar evolutionary models. We have carried out a
comparison of the observed parameters of EK Cep with theoretically
predicted values, and we have found that an evolutionary age for the
binary system around 2x10^7^ years verifies both components on the same
isochrone. Moreover, the secondary component has been confirmed as a pre
main sequence star while its more massive companion is in the begining
of the hydrogen-burning phase. For the same evolutionary age, we
computed the theoretical internal structure constants of the component
stars and thus predicted the newtonian apsidal motion rate. The
relativistic contribution is expected to be quite large (around 40% of
the total value) due to the small relative radii of the two stars. For
the present paper, a new determination of the observational apsidal
motion rate has been made with a result of 0.00101+/-0.00015
degrees/cycle. This is in perfect agreement with the predicted total
value. On the other hand, lithium depletion was followed during the
computation of the models. For the primary component we did not find
significant depletion, and for the secondary we found a depletion of
only 0.1 dex which is, in fact, in good agreement with observations.