THE FIRST PHOTOMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF THE NEGLECTED W-UMa-TYPE BINARY STAR UZ CMi

Abstract

UZ CMi was a W-UMa-type binary star found more than 80 years ago. However, it has been neglected in photometric investigations. Here, the first complete light curves in the B, V, R, and I bands are presented and analyzed using the Wilson and Devinney method. It is discovered that UZ CMi is a contact binary (f = 38.4(± 2.3)%) with a mass ratio of 0.45. The derived orbital inclination (i = 87°) indicates that it is a total eclipsing binary, which suggests that the determined parameters are reliable. By using 17 new eclipse times together with those collected from the literature, we found that the general trend of the observed–calculated (O − C) curve shows an upward parabolic variation that corresponds to a long-term increase in the orbital period at a rate of days yr−1. The continuous increase may be caused by a mass transfer from the less massive component to the more massive one. This suggests that UZ CMi is in the thermal relaxation oscillation controlled stage of the evolutionary scheme proposed by Qian. UZ CMi will oscillate around a critical mass ratio and the contact configuration cannot be broken. After the upward parabolic change was removed, the (O − C)2 curve of the photoelectric and charge-coupled device data revealed a cyclic variation with a small amplitude of 0.0026 days and a period of 21.1 yr. The cyclic change was analyzed for the light-travel time effect via the presence of an extremely cool stellar companion.