2011MNRAS.412.1787D

We present a detailed light-curve analysis of publicly available V-band observations of 62 binary stars, mostly contact binaries, obtained by the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS)-3 project between 2000 and 2009. Eclipsing binaries are important astronomical targets for determining the physical parameters of component stars from the geometry of their orbits. They provide an independent direct method of measuring the radii of stars. We improved the ASAS determined periods and ephemerides, and obtained the Fourier parameters from the phased light curves of these 62 stars. These Fourier parameters were used for preliminary classification of the stars in our sample. The phased light curves were then analysed with the aid of the Wilson-Devinney light-curve modelling technique in order to obtain various geometrical and physical parameters of these binaries. The spectroscopic mass ratios as determined from the radial velocity measurements available in the literature were used as one of the inputs to the light-curve modelling. Thus reliable estimations of parameters of these binaries were obtained with combined photometric and spectroscopic data, and error estimates were made using the heuristic scan method. For several systems in the sample, the solutions were obtained for the first time and would serve as a good source in the future for light-curve analysis based on more precise follow-up CCD photometric observations. Out of 62 stars in the sample, photometric analysis of 39 stars is presented here for the first time using the ASAS photometry and precise spectroscopic mass ratios. From the analysis, we found 54 contact binaries, six semidetached binaries and two detached binaries. The Fourier parameters in the a₂-a₄ plane were used for preliminary classification, and the final classification was done based on the Roche lobe geometry obtained from the light-curve modelling.