This interest is an extension of the work I did for my doctoral dissertation. It involves CCD photometry of eclipsing binary stars with a telescope and analysis of the observed data for the determination of the light curve elements in conjunction with a popular computational model in this field, the “Wislon-Divenney” model.
Why this research Interest?
Contact binary stars are examples of close binary stars. In close binary stars the components are physically so close in space that the evolution of one affects the evolution of the other. In recent years considerable effort has been invested in modeling close binary (and in general contact binary) evolution. Theoretical models are still incapable in providing answers to many questions such as on mass loss, angular momentum evolution and energy loss in these systems. The unavailability of good database on these systems increases our difficulty to tackle these problems.
The reason for the lack of database is not because there are no stars to study, but rather they are observer related. In recent years CCD’s have advanced considerably giving us the opportunity to observe these systems with relatively small telescopes. My future interest in this area is to study judiciously selected systems, that will provide a source of homogeneous database on contact binary systems and will be very beneficial in developing good theoretical models.
The role of students:
This type of project is ideal for the beginning students in astronomy as it particularly deals with learning high quality fundamental observational astronomy. Students can participate in planning of observing runs, acquiring and processing the data, analysis of the data with the help of astrophysical models and computers, and in preparing and publishing the manuscripts. This will give them training in working with optical telescopes, CCD cameras, and other scientific instruments. They will also learn to use relevant software tools such as IRAF, FORTRAN and other commonly available scientific data analysis packages.
Equipment and Facility:
The development of low cost CCD cameras and fast computers has now made it possible to study binary stars with relatively small telescopes (10-30 inch) and as such this type of work can be initiated at many different institution that have small telescope facility.