Magnetic activity and orbital periods of five low-mass eclipsing binaries

Abstract

We report 15 new VRI light curves of five low-mass eclipsing binaries (NSVS 02502726, NSVS 07453183, NSVS 11868841, NSVS 06550671 and NSVS 10653195) that were observed between 2010 and 2012. We analysed our new data together with three publishedspectroscopic observations and seven published light curves using a modified version of the Wilson-Devinney program. Orbital solutions of the five low-mass eclipsing binaries were revised and new star-spot parameters were obtained. We found that spot locations on the five low-mass eclipsing binaries changed over several years. However, the star-spots for NSVS 07453183 and NSVS 06550671 were stable for several months. More interestingly, for NSVS 02502726, the spots within a star-spot longitude region of 180°-360° indicated a magnetic activity cycle of 5.9(±0.2) yr.Moreover, we detected the first flare-like event on NSVS 07453183 at phase 0.39. The observations of the chromospheric activity indicators (Hβ and Hγ lines) revealed that NSVS 10653195 and NSVS 06550671 were active. For NSVS 02502726, we found a weak continuous secular decrease at a smaller rate of dp/dt=-2.1(0.8)×10-7 d yr-1 than the previous result. For NSVS 07453183, the O-C times appeared to increase at cycle 6000, and this was followed by a decrease at cycle 6500. © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.