Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-15T16:22:43.555Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Are there prominences around binary systems?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

R. D. Jeffries*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UKSchool of Physics and Space Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button.

I examine the possibility that large, cool prominences can be formed in close binary systems, when coronal structures grow beyond the point where centrifugal force balances gravitational attraction. X-ray light curves of the eclipsing binary XY UMa indicate that an extended corona is probably present and this is likely to reach heights > 1.5 R⊙, where centrifugal compression may render plasma in the coronal loop apexes unstable to thermal perturbations. Cool condensations could form, explaining features such as the dips in the X-ray light curves of V471 Tau, and the circumstellar material deduced to be present in several close binary systems.

Information

Type
Session IV: “Outer Atmospheric Structure”
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996