We thank the anonymous referee for providing very useful comments. We thank Professor Ulisse Munari for sending ANS photometry of T CrB. The SM plot, developed by Robert Lupton and Patricia Monger, was used in the production of some figures. This research was facilitated by the SIMBAD database, operated by CDS in Strasbourg, France, the VizieR catalog access tool, CDS, Strasbourg, France 10.26093/cds/vizier and the Astrophysics Data System Abstract Service, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under NASA Cooperative Agreement NNX16AC86A. This work made use of data from the European Space Agency (ESA) mission Gaia (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/gaia), processed by the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). Funding for the DPAC has been provided by national institutions, in particular the institutions participating in the Gaia Multilateral Agreement. K.H.H. acknowledges the NOAO Office of Science and the NOIRLab RSS group for support of this research through the emeritus astronomy program. NOIRLab is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Astronomy at Tennessee State University was supported by the State of Tennessee through its Centers of Excellence program. P.N. acknowledges supported by NSF grant AST-2307232. J.M. acknowledges support from the Polish National Science Center grant 2019/35/B/ST9/03944. O.S. received support from the INAF Minigrant 2023 Self-consistent Modeling of Interacting Binary Systems.
Binary Parameters for the Recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis
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1.
NOIRLab
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2.
California Institute of Technology
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3.
Tennessee State University
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4.
Polish Academy of Sciences
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5.
Collurania Teramo Observatory
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6.
Los Medanos College
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7.
National Institute for Nuclear Physics
Abstract
T CrB is among the brightest novae. It is recurrent with outbursts happening approximately every 80 yr. The next outburst is imminent, expected in 2025. The T CrB binary consists of an M4 III red giant (RG) secondary and a white dwarf (WD) primary. A time series of spectra of the RG was obtained between 2022 and 2024. Radial velocities (RVs) from these data were combined with literature RVs and an updated orbit computed. The orbit is circular to a high precision and has a period of 227.5494 ± 0.0049 days for the circular solution. An eccentric solution yields an eccentricity of 0.0072 ± 0.0026. Rotational line broadening of the RG was also measured. Binary parameters are derived by maximum likelihood modeling of the available observational data. The WD, in accord with other estimates for recurrent novae, is massive. Assuming the Gaia distance, the WD mass is 1.37 ± 0.01M⊙ with the M giant secondary mass 0.69_(−0.01)^)+(0.02)M⊙. We discuss the evolution of this system and both paths to and limitations on further refining the values of the system parameters.
Copyright and License
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
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Additional details
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NNX16AC86A
- National Science Foundation
- AST-2307232
- National Science Center
- 2019/35/B/ST9/03944
- National Institute for Astrophysics
- Accepted
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2025-02-27
- Available
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2025-04-08Published
- Caltech groups
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
- Publication Status
- Published