Spectroscopic binary mass determination using relativity

Abstract

High-precision radial-velocity techniques, which enabled the detection of extra-solar planets, are now sensitive to the lowest-order relativistic effects in the data of spectroscopic binary stars (SBs). We show how these effects can be used to derive the absolute masses of the components of eclipsing single-lined SBs and double-lined SBs from Doppler measurements alone. High-precision stellar spectroscopy can thus substantially increase the number of measured stellar masses, thereby improving the mass-radius and mass-luminosity calibrations. © International Astronomical Union 2010.