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arXiv, 2020

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2007.05349

The Astrophysical Journal, 1(898), p. L25, 2020

DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aba3c2

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A New Class of Roche Lobe–filling Hot Subdwarf Binaries

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We present the discovery of the second binary with a Roche lobe-filling hot subdwarf transferring mass to a white dwarf (WD) companion. This 56 minute binary was discovered using data from the Zwicky Transient Facility. Spectroscopic observations reveal an He-sdOB star with an effective temperature of $T_{\rm eff}=33,700±1000$ K and a surface gravity of $log(g)=5.54±0.11$. The GTC+HiPERCAM light curve is dominated by the ellipsoidal deformation of the He-sdOB star and shows an eclipse of the He-sdOB by an accretion disk as well as a weak eclipse of the WD. We infer a He-sdOB mass of $M_{\rm sdOB}=0.41±0.04$ M$_⊙$ and a WD mass of $M_{\rm WD}=0.68±0.05$ M$_⊙$. The weak eclipses imply a WD black-body temperature of $63,000±10,000$ K and a radius $R_{\rm WD}=0.0148±0.0020$ M$_⊙$ as expected for a WD of such high temperature. The He-sdOB star is likely undergoing hydrogen shell burning and will continue transferring mass for $≈1$ Myrs at a rate of $10^{-9} M_⊙ {\rm yr}^{-1}$ which is consistent with the high WD temperature. The hot subdwarf will then turn into a WD and the system will merge in $≈30$ Myrs. We suggest that Galactic reddening could bias discoveries towards preferentially finding Roche lobe-filling systems during the short-lived shell burning phase. Studies using reddening corrected samples should reveal a large population of helium core-burning hot subdwarfs with $T_{\rm eff}≈25,000$ K in binaries of 60-90 minutes with WDs. Though not yet in contact, these binaries would eventually come into contact through gravitational wave emission and explode as a sub-luminous thermonuclear supernova or evolve into a massive single WD.