Lampens, P. J. ; et al.

published in JENAM-2007, "Our Non-Stable Universe", pp. 15-15 (2007)

Abstract: The primary component of CT Her, a semi-detached eclipsing binary, is a Delta Scuti-type variable star with a period of about 27 min and a peak-to-peak amplitude of at most 0.03 mag. The light curves also show modulation, implying multiperiodicity. During the summer of 2005, a dedicated multi-site campaign was organised for this interesting target among the known mass-accreting pulsating components in Algol-type binary systems (oEA stars, Mkrtichian et al. 2004): it has a short orbital period of 1.7864 days and one of the highest ratios P_orb/P_puls (~95) among the ~20 oEA stars known to-date. We collected more than 1000 photometric data in the (Johnson) V filter and more than 4000 in the (Johnson) B filter using various observatories located in three different continents, mostly in the years 2005 and 2006. Using approximate photometric and absolute elements as starting parameters to describe the system and its two components, we fitted the combined V- and B-light curves with a well-matching semi-detached binary model using the code PHOEBE, following the principles of the Wilson-Devinney method. After subtraction of this improved binary model, the out-of-primary-eclipse V- and B-residual data were subsequently analysed using standard Fourier techniques. The frequency searches revealed four, possibly five significant pulsation frequencies in the frequency range 45-53 c/d with semi-amplitudes of a few mmag, of which three are well-identified (not affected by the aliasing phenomenon). The remaining standard deviation of the B-residuals spread over 3 years is 3.7 mmag, in some cases the residual light curves show clear systematic deviations still too large to be caused by white noise only.

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