A Computational Guide to Physics of Eclipsing Binaries. I. Demonstrations and Perspectives

Abstract

PHOEBE (PHysics Of Eclipsing BinariEs) is a modeling package for eclipsing binary stars, built on top of the widely used WD program of Wilson & Devinney. This introductory paper gives an overview of the most important scientific extensions (incorporating observational spectra of eclipsing binaries into the solution-seeking process, extracting individual temperatures from observed color indices, main-sequence constraining, and proper treatment of the reddening), numerical innovations (suggested improvements to WD's differential corrections method, the new Nelder & Mead downhill simplex method), and technical aspects (back-end scripter structure, graphical user interface). While PHOEBE retains 100% WD compatibility, its add-ons are a powerful way to enhance WD by encompassing even more physics and solution reliability. The operability of all these extensions is demonstrated on a synthetic main-sequence test binary; applications to real data will be published in follow-up papers. PHOEBE is released under the GNU General Public License, which guarantees it to be free and open to anyone interested in joining in on future development.

IO Com: Is it a Non-secondary Minimum Star?

“…The normalized mean intensities obtained for the four filters and the radial velocities of the system published by Griffin (1988) were analyzed together. The light curves were analysed using the PHOEBE program (see Prša & Zwitter 2005). It is obvious from the light curve that IO Com is a detached eclipsing binary, accordingly, the program was performed in the appropriate mode for this type of binaries.…”

Photometric and spectroscopic observations of the F3+M3 eclipsing binary T-Lyr0-08070

“…We used the most recent version of the eclipsing binary light curve modeling algorithm of Wilson & Devinney (1971) (with updates), as implemented in the phoebe code of Prša & Zwitter (2005). The code needs some input parameters, which depend upon the physical properties of the component stars.…”

Surface Brightness Variation of the Contact Binary SW Lac: Clues From Doppler Imaging

“…The 2009 and 2010 BV light curves were analysed simultaneously with the radial velocity curves of the system obtained by Rucinski et al (2005) using the interface version of the Wilson-Devinney code (Wilson & Devinney 1971), PHOEBE (Prsa & Zwitter 2005). Since the surface reconstructions of the system were performed using the time series spectra obtained in 2009, we first adopted the spot modeling, as three main circular spot regions, to the 2009 light curves and carried out the LC modeling (see Fig.1).…”