Spectroscopic solution of the star QX Cas

Abstract

High-resolution spectroscopic observations around the Hα line of the binary star QX Cas covering the whole orbital period are presented. Our radial velocity solution, the first ever determined, requires an eccentric orbit with the following orbital parameters: eccentricity, e = 0.22 ± 0.01; longitude of periastron, ω = 45° ± 5°; semi-amplitudes of the radial velocity curves of the primary and secondary stars, K1 sin i = 125.8 ± 0.9 km s-1 and K2 sin i = 144.8 ± 1.1 km s-1; gamma velocity, V0 = 65.1 ± 0.5 km s-1; and mass ratio, q = 0.869 ± 0.013. The corresponding lower limits of the masses of the components and their separation are, and a sin i = 31.34 ± 0.48 R⊙. © 2007 The Authors.