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# Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.1footnote 11footnote 1Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto. Methods and Uncertainties.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

This paper should be considered as a companion and supplement to the previous papers of our series of radial velocity studies of close binary stars: Lu & Rucinski (1999, Paper I), Rucinski & Lu (1999, Paper II), Rucinski et al. (2000, Paper III), Lu et al. (2001, Paper IV), Rucinski et al. (2001, Paper V), Rucinski et al. (2002, Paper VI).

The current program of radial velocity observations of close binary systems with periods shorter than one day is approximately at its half-way point. Our methods have been evolving slightly during the execution of the 60 radial velocity orbits presented in the six papers of the series, but appear to have stabilized now, warranting a more detailed documentation of the essential steps in our analysis and data reductions. We summarize these methods and give an overview of the uncertainties so that the results described in the previous and the planned future papers of the series could be better evaluated by readers. The discussion is limited strictly to methodological aspects and does not include any astrophysical results which will be discussed after the program is concluded.

## 2 INSTRUMENTATION AND OBSERVATIONS

We observe radial velocities of close binary stars with the 1.88m telescope of the David Dunlap Observatory using its medium-resolution spectrograph in the Cassegrain focus. The angular scale in the telescope focus is 6 arcsec per mm. We use one of the two spectrograph slits, 300 $`\mu `$m or 250 $`\mu `$m in width, both fixed in the E-W orientation and both 10 mm long. The angular widths of 1.8 and 1.5 arcsec approximately match the median seeing at the DDO of 1.7 arcsec. Since we started with the shortest-period binaries showing the strongest rotational line broadening, most observations have been made with the 300 $`\mu `$m slit. The scale reduction of the collimator–camera combination is 4 times resulting in the slit image of 75 $`\mu `$m or 62 $`\mu `$m for either of the slits. Our light detector is currently a thick, front-illuminated CCD chip of 1024 by 1024 pixels, 19 $`\mu `$m square. Thus, the slit images have the total widths of 3.9 or 3.3 pixels while the FWHM widths are about 2.6 and 2.2 pixels for the respective slits. To lower the influence of the readout noise, the two-dimensional CCD images are on-chip binned 4-times in the direction perpendicular to the dispersion direction.

Most of the spectral data have been obtained using the 1800 lines/mm diffraction grating, with the spectral window centered on the magnesium triplet Mg I “b” at 5184 Å. For solar-type stars, this region is very rich in spectral lines, which is an essential consideration for our method of radial-velocity measurements – through broadening functions – to succeed. The main-sequence stars of spectral types of middle-A to middle-K are practically the only stars found in close binaries with orbital periods shorter than one day. At 5184 Å, the spectrograph delivers 0.204 Å/(19 $`\mu `$m pixel) or about 11.8 km s-1 per pixel. As it is well known, when cross-correlation or similar techniques are used, narrow, properly-sampled, symmetric spectral features can be usually measured to better than about 1/10 part of the pixel size, with the accuracy growing in relation to the total length of the spectrum. In our case, the spectrum has the length of 208 Å so that we can rather easily determine velocities of sharp-line stars with accuracy of about 1 km s-1, as has been verified by many observational programs at the DDO (see the end of this section). The accuracy for broad-lined spectra of binary components is obviously lower and depends on a combination of many factors. We discuss the random errors in Section 8, while systematic uncertainties specific to close binary stars are discussed in Section 9.

The spectrograph is known to show some flexure limiting exposures to about 30 minutes. This has not been a real limitation in the observations because our program stars have short periods and in fact require exposures to be no longer than 15 – 20 minutes to prevent the radial-velocity smearing. We normally take comparison-lamp (FeAr) spectra before and after each exposure, but sometimes, for the shortest-period binaries, we take two or three stellar exposures for a set of bracketing comparison spectra spaced by no more than half an hour. The flat field lamp is an internal one in the spectrograph, but we occasionally take also sky flat-field spectra.

We observe typically 3 to 5 radial-velocity standard stars per night. These stars are selected to have spectra of similar spectral types to our program stars, to serve later as templates in our technique of radial-velocity measurements through broadening functions (see Sections 56). An inter-comparison of radial velocities of standard stars gives an estimate of random errors at the level of about $`1.01.2`$ km s-1. This agrees with the results for Cepheids observed at the DDO by Sugars & Evans (1994) and Evans (2000) where the errors were estimated at $`1.01.3`$ km s-1. A fraction in these errors may come from our continuing use of the IAU standard-star list as published in the Nautical Almanac 1995. As explained in Stefanik et al. (1999), the IAU list contained at that time a few stars which are unsuitable as radial velocity standards. Since we used many different standard stars from the IAU list, these systematic errors averaged out to some degree and manifested themselves mostly as random errors. We now use exclusively the list of Stefanik et al. (1999), but the results of our program may be affected by the uncertainties in the old standard velocity data at a level of 0.2 – 0.5 km s-1.

## 3 INITIAL ANALYSIS OF SPECTRA

The reductions consist of several stages. Stage #1 consists of a transformation from two-dimensional images to one-dimensional, wavelength-calibrated, rectified spectra. All the steps, starting with de-biasing and flat-fielding, utilize the standard techniques within IRAF222IRAF is distributed by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, which are operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.. We make sure to use a consistent set of low-order polynomials for the dispersion relation and use the IRAF rejection algorithm for rectification of the spectra; both steps are facilitated by the short length of our spectra within which the dispersion and the CCD sensitivity vary only slightly and in a smooth way.

Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties. shows a typical spectrum for our program of the binary KR Com, one of the stars presented in the most recent paper of the series (Rucinski et al., 2002, Paper VI). It is a typical, yet difficult case, in the sense that we have been frequently dealing with rather complex, multi-component spectra even among relatively bright stars (7th magnitude in this case). Some systems of our program have been previously known binaries, too difficult to handle using traditional (including cross-correlation) methods, but many were recently discovered as photometric variables.

The spectra of KR Com are dominated by the third, slowly rotating component which – although the fainter one in the visual system – dominates the spectral appearance and produces sharp, easily identifiable spectral lines. The triplicity of KR Com went apparently unnoticed for so long mostly because the spectra, superficially, look like those of a single, slowly-rotating star and – paradoxically – the spectrum of the brighter binary component is not normally visible. The presence of the binary, which produces the broad spectral signature, manifests itself spectrally only through merging of more common, weaker lines and the general lowering of the continuum and is difficult to notice in low S/N spectra. The low-level photometric variability of the whole system is due to the contact binary which is the brighter component in the system, but the variability signal is sufficiently “diluted” in the combined light of the system that it took the high quality of the Hipparcos photometry to discover it.

Spectra like that shown in the left panel of Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties. are not analyzed directly, but are subject to the broadening-function extraction process, which is followed by measurements of radial velocities.

## 4 WHY WE DO NOT USE THE CROSS CORRELATION FUNCTION

Step #2 of the analysis is determination of the broadening function (BF). The BF approach was described before in Rucinski (1992, 1999) and is discussed more extensively in Section 5. In essence, it consists of a linear, least-squares determination of the broadening convolution kernel from rotationally- and orbitally-broadened spectra, utilizing spectra of sharp-line, slowly rotating radial-velocity standards. We do not use the popular cross-correlation function (CCF) technique because it appears to give inferior and biased results for close binary systems. We now try to explain this rather strong statement.

1. The CCF combines the broadening of the program spectrum with that of the template, with the resulting loss of resolution, while the BF approach attempts to remove the common broadening contributions. Only if the template spectrum were a series of delta-functions, would the results be the same.
2. The definition of the baseline in the CCF is usually difficult and may lead to problems when relative luminosities of components are determined.
3. Outside of the main peak which is used for radial velocity determination, the CCF always shows a fringing pattern which may affect the strength and intensity of secondary correlation peaks for multiple systems. For very close binaries, the secondary fringes frequently produce the “peak-pulling” effect of the systematically smaller radial-velocity amplitudes, but a more complex interaction is entirely possible.
4. The shape of the CCF beyond the main correlation peak depends on the shape of the stellar spectrum. For the same star, observations in different parts of the spectrum define different CCF’s. This problem is rarely recognized and is particularly severe for sparse spectra, when the CCF is analyzed over a wide range of correlation lags.

The problems listed above are illustrated in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties. for the case of the triple system KR Com. In the right panel, we show a comparison of the BF with the CCF for the same spectra. While the BF very clearly shows all three components in the system, it would be very difficult separate the three signatures using the CCF. The superior resolution offered by the BF approach has permitted us to analyze spectra with very strong rotational broadening, combined with situations of three or more sets of blended lines in triple and quadruple systems, with component stars showing different amounts of rotational broadening. Such systems have been frequently abandoned in the past because of insurmountable difficulties with separating and measuring radial velocities of individual components.

The problems of the baseline location and fringing in the CCF, as well as of the dependence on the shape of the stellar spectrum are illustrated in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.. This figure contains a result of the following data-processing experiment. A high quality, but somewhat sparse stellar spectrum (left panel, sampled at equal velocity steps of 0.88 km s-1) was convolved with the single-star rotational-broadening pattern with $`V\mathrm{sin}i=88`$ km s-1 and then subject to the CCF determination. No noise was added, so the CCF is basically perfectly determined and can be used for a direct comparison with the assumed broadening function. The right panel of the figure compares the assumed broadening profile (dotted line), which is the same as the BF, with the CCF (full line). The strong fringes in the CCF are very well visible. In this particular case, the unusual strength the positive fringes results from the low density of spectral features in the original spectrum and illustrates the dependence of the CCF on the stellar spectrum. While the BF formalism is insensitive to the density and distribution of the spectral lines, the CCF – beyond the main peak – does depend on the spectral region. Thus, sparse spectra will lead to less-well defined broadening functions with larger random errors (simply because of the lower information content), while the CCF will additionally show systematic differences in the fringing pattern outside the main peak.

The negative fringes which are always present in the CCF can produce a quasi-baseline around the main correlation peak at a very different level than expected. In the case shown in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties., the local baseline is located about $`0.1`$ below the originally assumed broadening profile. If only a small part of the CCF were used, this is where the baseline would normally be located. Since a CCF would rarely be used for anything else but a radial-velocity determination from the correlation peak, the exact location of the baseline may seem immaterial. However, when a secondary star is added to the picture, with the similar rotational broadening and a velocity separation comparable to the rotational broadening, as is the case for short-period binary stars, then the secondary peak in the CCF will definitely interact with the primary-star fringing pattern; there will be also the reverse interaction of the secondary pattern with the primary peak. For single objects, the fringes are basically irrelevant, so that very close or identical radial velocities are determined using both techniques. Problems occur when multiple components are present in the spectra and are particularly severe in the CCF when broadening of the lines is of the same scale as the line splitting, exactly the situation we face in our program.

We recognize that a method based on the two-dimensional cross-correlation function called TODCOR (Zucker & Mazeh, 1994; Zucker et al., 1995) has been developed and successfully applied to several multi-lined stellar systems showing sharp spectral lines. We did not attempt to use this technique mostly because we feel more comfortable with a tool developed by ourselves, but also because (1) TODCOR is designed for sharp-lined spectra and has not been demonstrated to work for the very broad lines of contact binaries, and (2) we frequently deal with mixed very broad and narrow spectral signatures which would require extension of the TODCOR capabilities even further. We note that the non-linear nature of the cross-correlation complicates derivation of relative luminosities of components and requires a complex calibration while our linear approach gives directly the relative luminosities through integration of the individual features in the broadening functions. This is particularly convenient for systems with components showing very different degrees of rotational broadening.

## 5 BROADENING FUNCTIONS

We define the broadening function333A full description of the concept of the broadening functions with examples and detailed programming suggestions is available at the WWW site http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/$``$rucinski. as a function that transforms a sharp-line spectrum of a standard star into a broadened spectrum of a binary or, for that matter, of any other star showing geometrical, Doppler-effect line broadening. This way we not only determine the broadening-function shape, but also automatically relate absolute velocities of program stars to radial-velocity standards used as templates, a common advantage with the CCF approach. We do not use model spectra, e.g. through representation of spectral lines by delta functions. While the broadening functions determined that way would be cleaner and much better defined than those utilizing standard-star templates, the advantage of the automatic relative radial-velocity calibration would be lost.

We perform all radial velocity determinations in the geocentric system and only later transform the results to the barycentric (heliocentric with planetary corrections) system. Thus, we start with a raw template spectrum $`S_t`$, with its wavelength scale in $`W_t`$, and a raw program spectrum $`S_p`$, with its wavelength scale in $`W_p`$. Both $`S_t`$ and $`S_p`$ are rectified and normalized to unity. To diminish importance of the one-to-zero discontinuities at the ends of the spectra, we invert them so that the absorption lines are represented by positive spikes: $`S_t^{}=1S_t`$ and $`S_p^{}=1S_p`$.

The spectra must be of similar spectral type. We normally use the templates with spectra within one spectral type. However, we have found that F-type templates will work reasonably well for radial velocity determinations between middle A-types to early K-type stars; however, the relative luminosity estimates from the individual peaks will then be wrong.

The spectra must be first re-sampled into equal steps in velocity. In our case the velocity step is typically $`\mathrm{\Delta }v=11.8`$ km s-1. An auxiliary vector of wavelengths is now created with elements: $`W=W_0(1+r)^i`$, where $`i=0,\mathrm{},n1`$ is the index in the new vector and $`r=\mathrm{\Delta }v/c`$, where $`c`$ is the velocity of light. The origin of this vector, $`W_0`$, is selected to fall just above both origins of $`W_t`$ and $`W_p`$ for a meaningful interpolation of both spectra into the new wavelength scale. The length of $`\stackrel{}{W}`$ is in our case usually selected to be $`n=10001020`$ spectral elements. The spectra $`S_t^{}`$ and $`S_p^{}`$ are linearly interpolated using $`W`$, by treating $`W_t`$ and $`W_p`$ as the respective abscissas, to create the spectra used in the BF derivation: for the template, $`T`$, and for the program star, $`P`$. After this is accomplished, the three wavelength vectors $`W`$, $`W_t`$ and $`W_p`$ are no longer needed because the program and the template spectra are now in the same (geocentric) velocity system. We can think about them as functions $`P(n)`$ and $`T(n)`$ with the same velocity axis or vectors $`\stackrel{}{P}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{T}`$ over the same range of indices.

The convolution operation which maps a sharp-line spectrum $`T`$ into a broad and/or binary-star spectrum $`P`$,

$$P(\lambda ^{})=B(\lambda ^{}\lambda )T(\lambda )𝑑\lambda $$
(1)
can be written as an array operation,

$$\stackrel{}{P}=𝐃\stackrel{}{B}$$
(2)
in which the rectangular array $`𝐃`$ is created from the vector $`\stackrel{}{T}`$ by placing it as columns of $`𝐃`$ after shifting it downward by one index for each successive column (see below or, for further details, consult Rucinski (1992, 1999)). The broadening function is represented by a vector of the unknowns in the solution, $`\stackrel{}{B}`$. The array $`𝐃`$ has the short dimension $`m`$ and the long dimension $`nm+1`$; it accomplishes the mapping of $`TP`$. We normally use the odd number for the size of the broadening function, $`m`$, to have it centered at the pixel symmetrically distant from both ends. Also, for proper handling of the ends, $`m^{}=\mathrm{integer}(m/2)`$ points are removed from both ends of $`\stackrel{}{P}`$.

The convolution operation equivalent to Eq. (2), which is used in the least-squares determination of $`\stackrel{}{B}`$, can be written as a system of over-determined linear equations:

$$P_i=\underset{j=0}{\overset{m1}{}}T_{i+mj}B_j\text{with}i=m^{},\mathrm{},nm^{}1$$
(3)
The number of equations should be several times larger than the number of unknowns, $`nm+1>m`$. In our program, we normally use $`n=10001020`$ and $`m=121`$. The size of the broadening function, $`m`$, translates into the relative velocity range (program minus template) of $`\pm 708`$ km s-1 insuring a good definition of the BF itself and of the flat baseline around it. The actual size of the broadening function is a matter of choice; sometimes we repeat the BF determination with a smaller $`m`$ for binary systems with moderate line splitting when a wide window of over 1400 km s-1 is not needed. The point is to use as short a BF as possible because the quality of the determination (over-determinacy) increases in relation to how many times the spectra are longer than the BF.

Solving of the broadening function $`B_j`$ is accomplished by least-squares. We are strong advocates of the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) technique which is particularly useful in eliminating those parts of the spectra that carry no information (the inter-line continuum), but create linear dependencies. The approach involving rejection of small singular values is the best for restoration of the shape of the BF for its subsequent modeling. However, with the radial velocities in mind, we do not in fact eliminate any singular values. In this respect, we have made some departure from the original philosophy, but this departure has a reason; if some basis functions are eliminated, there exists a possibility that the spectral features may acquire asymmetries through an unwanted conspiracy of the basis functions which remain in the definition of the BF. By retaining all singular values, we treat each element of $`B_j`$ (Eqs. (2) – (3)) as a totally independent variable, not related in any way to its neighbors. Thus, any least-squares technique can be used at this stage, although we continue to use the SVD as easier to use and more transparent for the matrix inversion.

The details of the SVD approach to solve the array equation Eq. (2) or its equivalent Eq. (3) for the BF vector $`\stackrel{}{B}`$ are described in Rucinski (1992) and the programming examples are given in Rucinski (1999). Even without elimination of any singular values in the SVD solution, this approach has an advantage that one decomposition of the template-spectrum array, $`𝐃=𝐔𝐖𝐕^𝐓`$, can serve to determine $`\stackrel{}{B}`$ from several program spectra through the inverted relation, $`\stackrel{}{B}=𝐕𝐖^\mathrm{𝟏}(𝐔^𝐓\stackrel{}{P})`$. For an excellent exposition of the SVD technique stressing its beneficial properties, see Press et al. (1992).

Irrespective of which method of the least-square solution is used, the resulting broadening functions are always very noisy and cannot be used for radial-velocity measurements. The reason for the excessive noise is that each element of the solution $`B_j`$ is unrelated to its neighbors and is treated as a separate unknown. We know, however, that our spectral resolution is controlled by the spectrograph slit which introduces coupling between neighboring points of the BF. In our case, the intrinsic smoothing introduced by one of the entrance slits is characterized by the FWHM of about 2.6 or 2.2 pixels. It is therefore reasonable to apply some smoothing to the noisy BF’s. Superficially, this step does the same to the final shape of the BF as smoothing through rejection of noise absorbed by high-order singular values in the SVD technique; however, this operation is strictly local whereas removal of some singular values may introduce non-local effects. Usually, we smooth the broadening functions by convolving them with a Gaussian with $`\sigma =1.5`$ pixels (FWHM=3.53 pixels); for poor spectra of very faint stars we are sometimes forced to use $`\sigma =2.0`$ (FWHM=4.71 pixels). Such smoothing is slightly stronger than its instrumental counterpart by the spectrograph slit, but is nevertheless very small, when compared with widths of lines in binary stars with periods shorter than one day.

## 6 RADIAL VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS

Step #3 is the radial velocity determination from the broadening functions. We determine the radial velocities of each binary component in the geocentric system, relative to the template star, $`v_i`$. Following that, the relative velocities are transformed to the solar system barycenter with $`V_i=v_i+(HC_pHC_t)+V_t`$, where $`HC`$ are the barycentric (sometimes called “heliocentric”) velocity corrections resulting from the orbital Earth motion for the program and template spectra and $`V_t`$ is the barycentric velocity of the template star.

The broadening function $`B(v)`$ determined in the previous step is defined at points separated by equal steps in relative geocentric velocity, in our case normally $`\mathrm{\Delta }v=11.8`$ km s-1, spanning the velocity range $`708V+708`$ km s-1. The velocities of stellar components are determined by simultaneous fitting of several Gaussian curves to that many spectral features as are seen in the BF. Thus, it would be a 4-parameter Gaussian fit for a single star (baseline $`a_0`$, strength $`a_1`$, position $`a_2`$, width $`a_3`$), a 7-parameter fit for a binary or a 10-parameter fit for a triple system, etc., as in:

$$B(v)a_0+\underset{i=1}{\overset{n}{}}a_{1i}\mathrm{exp}\left(\left((va_{2i})/a_{3i}\right)^2\right)$$
(4)
where $`n`$ represents the number of stellar components in the system. We found that least-squares Gaussian fits for single stars are usually stable, while those involving more components (binary, triple and higher multiplicity systems) are numerically unstable forcing us to fix or manually adjust the width parameters, $`a_{3i}`$.

In triple systems which we encountered so far, the most typical combination has been a broad-lined close binary accompanied by a sharp-lined, slowly-rotating star. In such situations, we first leave the width and position of the third, sharp component floating in order to determine best possible parameters for its subsequent subtraction from the BF. For the example shown in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties., the Gaussian widths for the binary components were assumed at $`a_{31}=110`$ km s-1 and $`a_{32}=70`$ km s-1 while the width $`a_{33}`$ was determined at 24.74 km s-1. We found that situations similar to that shown in the figure require a careful removal of the third-component signature. In order to define the BF for the close binary the best way possible, we cannot remove the averaged signature of the third star from many spectra and must subtract it as it is defined for the same observation. There may be many reasons why subtraction of the averaged third-star peak leaves too large residuals, including small changes in the effective resolution, imperfections in the geocentric to barycentric transformations or instabilities in the spectrograph. Obviously, this approach reduces the accuracy of the third-star velocities, but our goal has been to determine the best velocities for the close binary so that we accept this limitation. The BF for the binary is usually very well defined, see for example Figure 4 in Paper IV for HT Vir.

The random radial-velocity errors for binaries in occurring in triple systems are only slightly larger than for the isolated binaries, typically by less than 1 km s-1 in the errors of $`V_0`$, $`K_1`$ and $`K_2`$, which simply reflects more degrees of freedom in the problem (see the discussion in Section 8 and in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.). Much more difficult to characterize are systematic uncertainties. One manifestation of such uncertainties is the occasional presence of an undesirable “cross-talk” in the three-feature fits in the sense that the third-star velocities sometimes correlate with the binary phase. We always check the third-star velocities for the dependence on the binary phase and sometimes find a correlation. (For a rather extreme case, see the discussion of II UMa in Paper VI). It is usually quite difficult to find reasons for the cross-talk and each case seems to be unique. Faintness of the star and/or poor spectra certainly magnify the problem which depends on such factors as the location of the third peak in the BF relative to the peaks for the binary system stars (i.e. with which component the third peak mergers most of the time) or the overall degree of the line splitting for the binary system (which depends on the orbital inclination). Typically, the cross-talk increases the error per observation of the third-star from the expected level (for a sharp-line star) of $`1.21.3`$ km s-1, to the level of $`1.52.5`$ km s-1. Except for noting the presence of the cross-talk, we are not in position to study it more extensively given the different type of the binary-phase dependence in each case. Our hope is that the cross-talk will average out in the velocities of the third component, although the final proof will come only through external comparisons. The stress has been always on the quality of the binary solutions, perhaps at the expense of the quality of the radial-velocity data for the third components.

We measure the radial-velocities for the binary components, and – if necessary, of a spectroscopic companion – but do not estimate the accuracy of the radial-velocity measurements at this stage. In principle, it is possible to establish a relation between the signal-to-noise (S/N) in the spectrum and in the broadening function (Rucinski et al., 1993), but further propagation of the errors into the velocity errors is more complex and depends on many factors. While such a relation would be definitely needed for full modeling of the BF’s, we feel that complexity of the error analysis is not warranted in our case. Thus, we do not determine the radial-velocity errors from the individual BF’s, but evaluate them externally later from the orbital velocity solutions. Such estimates may be perhaps overly pessimistic, as they incorporate systematic deviations from the orbital motion models. Most importantly, however, the random errors are not the limiting factor in our results; the real difficulty is in evaluation of systematic uncertainties. We address this issue in Section 9, after describing the orbital solutions (Section 7) and the externally-evaluated random errors (Section 8).

## 7 ORBITAL SOLUTIONS

Step #4 of the reductions is the determination of the radial-velocity orbit using individual velocities of both components at all observed orbital phases. Currently, we do so by measuring individual velocities of components, although a more global approach involving modeling of broadening functions would be definitely much preferable. The broadening functions have the potential of providing much more information than just simple velocity centroids so that orbital solutions could be carried to a much higher level of sophistication than in this series of papers. Such use of the BF’s was described in Rucinski (1992); Lu & Rucinski (1993); Rucinski et al. (1993), where modeling of the BF shape was advocated. Full modeling of this type requires knowledge of the orbital inclination, which is usually not available, and involves a simultaneous determination of the radial-velocity span, $`K_1+K_2`$, the mass ratio, $`q`$ and the degree-of-contact parameter, $`f`$. The complexity of such a global approach is the main reason why we continue to use single velocities to characterize motions of stellar components, but we do recognize limitations of this approach which may generate systematic uncertainties in the final results; this is discussed in Section 9. We should add, that originally, this program was intended to provide the $`V_0`$ values from a small number of radial-velocity measurements, to relate to the then newly available Hipparcos tangential velocities. However with time, our program acquired its current significance as the main contributor of radial velocity orbits for short-period binaries (this circumstance taking place partly “by default”, through a surprising lack of similar programs at other observatories). Thus, we continue to use the Gaussian fits, but recognize that all our spectra and the broadening functions may be used for a much more extensive modeling.

All short-period binary systems observed by us so far have circular orbits resulting in sine-curve variations of orbital velocities. The only exception that we had to consider is the third star in the system of HT Vir (Paper IV) on an eccentric orbit; for this case we used the model of Morbey (1975). Because eclipse effects of rotationally broadened lines change line shapes and produce undesirable radial-velocity shifts, we eliminate observations close to orbital conjunctions, usually within the phase ranges 0.85 – 0.15 and 0.35 – 0.65.

The orbital solutions are obtained iteratively. First, we use the linear model of two sine curves and one constant value, with an assumed moment of the primary eclipse $`T_0`$. Thus, for $`k`$ observations, we simultaneously fit by least squares $`2\times k`$ equations of the type:

$`V_1(\varphi _l)`$ $`=`$ $`V_0K_1\mathrm{sin}\varphi _l+\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}0}`$ (5)
$`V_2(\varphi _l)`$ $`=`$ $`V_0\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}\hspace{0.33em}0}+K_2\mathrm{sin}\varphi _l`$ (6)
$`l`$ $`=`$ $`0,\mathrm{},k1`$
$`\varphi `$ is the orbital phase, $`\varphi _l=(t_lT_0)/P`$. Similarly to $`T_0`$, the period $`P`$ is usually taken from literature sources and is fixed; only in a few cases we attempted to improve its value. The equations can be weighted at this point when observations are of different quality. The weighting schemes are discussed in descriptions of stellar systems in individual papers and are given in the tables with radial velocities. Note the sign convention in the equations, which implies that we usually start with an assumption that the primary, more massive component (star 1) is eclipsed at the photometric primary minimum. In other words, we assume that for a contact system the configuration is of an A-type contact binary. We identify the W-type systems when this assumption is not valid.

The resulting $`V_0`$, $`K_1`$, $`K_2`$ are the first approximations of the orbital parameters. The next step in the iterative solution consists of the application of the linearized versions of Equations (5) – (6) for $`\mathrm{\Delta }V_0`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }K_1`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }K_2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_0`$. We always first use any available literature value for $`T_0`$ and then improve it by solving the linearized equations until all corrections $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ no longer change. It is at this stage that we determine random-error uncertainties of the orbital parameters and the radial-velocity errors per observation.

## 8 MEAN STANDARD ERRORS

Least-squares solutions of the linearized Equations (5) – (6) can provide mean standard errors of the orbital parameters $`V_0`$, $`K_1`$, $`K_2`$ and $`T_0`$. We do not use such errors because they usually underestimate the random error uncertainties. Instead, we use the “bootstrap sampling” technique which involves multiple (thousands of times) re-sampling of the data with possible repetitions, with subsequent solutions of all such datasets. By forming statistics of the spread in the resulting parameters and by determining the inner 67 percent distribution ranges, we estimate equivalents of the mean standard errors. They are sometimes close to the linear estimates, but usually are larger. In any case, we consider them more realistic as they include inter-parameter correlations.

We have sufficient amount of information from all our orbital solutions to analyze sizes and distributions of our random errors. For that purpose, we used all the available solutions, eliminating three systems observed at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, as reported in Paper I, and adding W Crv described separately (Rucinski & Lu, 2000), altogether 58 orbital solutions.

The statistics of mean standard errors per single observation, $`ϵ_i`$, for the primary ($`i=1`$) and the secondary ($`i=2`$) components, is shown in the first panel of Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.. The median values of the errors are $`ϵ_1=5.48`$ km s-1 and $`ϵ_2=11.50`$ km s-1. The corresponding distributions for the errors of the radial-velocity amplitudes, $`\sigma (K_i)`$, are shown in the upper right panel. The median values are $`\sigma (K_1)=1.11`$ km s-1 and $`\sigma (K_2)=1.96`$ km s-1. The center-of-mass velocities $`V_0`$ are better established than $`K_i`$ because two stars contribute in each solution to one number. The median value of these errors is $`\sigma (V_0)=1.07`$ km s-1. Finally, the distribution of the mean standard errors of the initial epoch, $`\sigma (T_0)`$, is shown in the last panel of Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.. The median value for this error is, $`\sigma (T_0)=0.0011`$ days (about 1.5 minute).

The mean standard errors of the orbital parameters are correlated. The most interesting correlations are shown in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.. The two upper panels show that the mean error of the center-of-mass velocity, $`\sigma (V_0)`$, which appears to be a convenient measure of the quality of the orbital data. It depends on the brightness of the system and on the orbital period. It is confined within $`<1.5`$ km s-1 for $`V_{max}<8.5`$, but increases to slightly over 2 km s-1 for $`V_{max}10`$ (the left upper panel). The scatter in $`\sigma (V_0)`$ increases for short-period systems (the right upper panel of Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.), but this may be due to the fact that most of our targets had periods within 0.3 – 0.6 days, in a range where a genuine frequency maximum exists in the volume-limited samples of contact binaries (Rucinski, 1998). The systems with longer periods, $`P>0.8`$ days, tend to show small errors, but these are exactly those binaries which had been overlooked before among bright stars and have been easy targets for our program. The error $`\sigma (V_0)`$ correlates tightly with $`\sigma (K_i)`$ and with $`ϵ_i`$, as shown in the four lower panels of Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.. A particularly close correlation with the slope close to unity exists between $`\sigma (K_1)`$ and $`\sigma (V_0)`$ (middle left panel).

Binaries observed in spectroscopic triple systems show slightly larger random errors than when isolated, typically by less than 1 km s-1 in the errors of $`V_0`$, $`K_1`$ and $`K_2`$. Such binaries are shown by open symbols in all plots in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties..

## 9 SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES

It is difficult to evaluate systematic uncertainties of our results. The systematic errors depend in a complex way on the orbital parameters and couple with the random errors. The main source of the systematic errors is the measurement of radial velocities from the broadening functions. We approximate the center-of-mass positions with the light centroids and measure the centroids by fitting Gaussians. The latter assumption, that the radial velocities of the light centroids coincide with radial velocities of the mass centers, is – in general – not fulfilled by distorted components in close binary systems and is particularly dangerous for contact binaries where the peaks in the BF’s are not symmetric, with steeper outer parts and more gently sloping inner parts. Direct modeling of the BF’s would avoid this systematic error (see the end of this section).

Some insight into systematic uncertainties involving the Gaussian approximation of the peaks in the broadening functions can be obtained by applying Gaussians of various widths and evaluating systematic shifts in the results. We will consider here, as a case study, of a typical, 9 magnitude, A-type contact system GM Dra from the most recent Paper VI.

Let us first consider one broadening function for the orbital phase 0.283 of GM Dra (the lowest panel of Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.). For this particular broadening function, we would normally select the best-fitting Gaussians to have the width parameters $`a_{31}=120`$ km s-1 and $`a_{32}=80`$ km s-1 (see Eq. (4)). However, as an experiment, we considered widths between the estimated narrowest and widest acceptable values of $`a_{3i}`$: $`a_{31}=100140`$ km s-1 and $`a_{32}=60100`$ km s-1. The extreme cases are shown by dotted and broken lines in Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties.. For the full ranges of the widths, the change in the measured velocity of the primary component is from $`28.86`$ km s-1 to $`31.27`$ km s-1, while the change for the secondary component is from $`+261.44`$ km s-1 to $`+262.49`$ km s-1. Thus, systematic errors in radial velocities appear to be at a level of 1.5 to 2.5 km s-1, with larger velocities (in the absolute sense) associated with larger assumed widths of the fitting Gaussians.

Analysis of the type presented above can be done for all available broadening functions, at all orbital phases. The four upper panels of Figure Radial Velocity Studies of Close Binary Stars. VII.111Based on the data obtained at the David Dunlap Observatory, University of Toronto.  Methods and Uncertainties. show the shifts in the measured centroids for all available observations of GM Dra obtained around the orbital quadratures, within the orbital phase ranges 0.15 – 0.35 and 0.65 – 0.85, as marked in the figure. The Gaussian widths $`a_{3i}`$ were incremented in equal steps and for each assumed width a full radial velocity determination was performed. As we can see in the figure, the systematic effects are clearly present, especially for the secondary (less-massive) component. The shifts are typically at the level below 2 km s-1 for the primary component, but the shifts of the order of 5 – 7 km s-1 are not uncommon for the secondary component. The shifts depend on side of the binary system (or the sign of the radial velocity) observed at a given orbital quadrature. The overall tendency appears to be that the wider Gaussian width $`a_{3i}`$ result in velocities further away from the center-of-mass velocity, i.e. such ones which should lead to systematically larger values of the orbital amplitudes, $`K_i`$. This is confirmed by the actual determinations of the radial velocity orbits for the extreme values of \[$`a_{31}`$, $`a_{32}`$\] pairs, selected to deviate from the optimal values of 120 and 80 km s-1 by $`\pm 20`$ km s-1. The systematic changes for the particular case of GM Dra strongly depend on the parameter considered. While the changes in $`V_0`$ are within $`+0.09`$ and $`0.16`$ km s-1, those in the amplitudes are larger: $`0.34`$ and $`+0.15`$ km s-1 for $`K_1`$ and as much as $`4.30`$ and $`+5.97`$ km s-1 for $`K_2`$. While the ranges of the Gaussian widths $`a_{3i}`$ were intentionally exaggerated in the experiment, to estimate the largest systematic deviations, we clearly see that systematic effects may set an important limitation on our results. For comparison, we note that the random errors of the orbital parameters of GM Dra are $`\sigma (V_0)=1.52`$ km s-1, $`\sigma (K_1)=1.75`$ km s-1 and $`\sigma (K_2)=2.50`$ km s-1 (Paper VI). Thus, for this particular binary, the systematic uncertainty appears to be larger than the random error only for $`K_2`$, but then it is even two times larger.

Optimally, the systematic effects resulting from the use of different widths in the Gaussian fits should be evaluated for each binary through a process similar to that applied to GM Dra. However, we feel that it is impractical to perform similar analyses for all systems in this program. Besides, we know that application of the Gaussian fits is – in any case – a crude approximation and that the best approach would be to model the broadening functions as it was done in Rucinski (1992); Lu & Rucinski (1993); Rucinski et al. (1993). Full BF modeling would permit inclusion of more spectra than we utilize now because, currently, we measure for radial velocities only those BF’s which show a clear splitting of the spectral signatures. By addition of these spectra we would increase the available material by about 20 – 30 percent, which would only slightly reduce random errors and thus produce a very modest improvement in accuracy. Much more important would be a reduction or entire elimination of the systematic errors, which may reach levels of 5 – 7 km s-1. For most binaries of this program, this would typically correspond to about 2 – 3 percent error in $`K_i`$, but in some extreme cases of small semi-amplitudes, the errors may reach 10 – 15 percent. While the approach involving combined radial velocity and light-curve modeling would avoid the main systematic effects, it would require a considerable organizational and computational effort, introducing large delays in our mostly observational program. Since our radial velocity observations are – for most systems – the first and the only ones, we decided to accept the level of systematic errors generated by the use of the measuring Gaussians and make our solutions generally available, keeping in mind their systematic uncertainties which must be taken into account when considering the overall accuracy of our program.

## 10 CONCLUSIONS AND PLANS

The ongoing survey of close binary systems with periods shorter than one day, currently conducted at the David Dunlap Observatory, has resulted in a consistent set of radial velocity orbits for sixty previously unobserved binaries to approximately 11th magnitude. While, at the start, the survey concentrated on systems which simply had not been studied before (for various reasons, but mostly because of inadequate instrumentation and data-analysis tools some half a century ago, when this field was very active), the photometric discoveries of the Hipparcos satellite are now dominating in numbers. There was only one Hipparcos system among the first twenty orbits (Papers I and II), 9 such systems among the next twenty orbits (Papers III and IV) and 15 such systems among the most recent twenty orbits (Papers V and VI). About 50 known, photometrically-discovered binaries still remain to be observed and analyzed and new ones are constantly added to catalogs, some of them quite bright. Regrettably, apparently there is no similar survey for the southern hemisphere.

Our survey is quasi-random in the sense that we observe all short-period ($`P<1`$ day), bright, previously unobserved binaries. With such criteria, the contact binaries absolutely dominate in numbers. Among the 60 systems described in the previous six papers, only 8 were not contact systems. This is partially due to strong selection effects against detection of detached binaries, but mostly due to the very high frequency of contact binary systems in the old-disk population, particularly in the period range 0.3 to 0.5 days, but with a tail extending beyond one day, to about 1.3 – 1.5 days. The high frequency of incidence is strongly manifested in the volume-limited OGLE sample and in open clusters (Rucinski, 1998). Because our survey is magnitude limited, we tend to include many brighter systems from the tail of the distribution between 0.5 day and our current upper limit at one day. Otherwise, we do not discriminate among binary systems in any other way. In particular, the random character of the survey has resulted in discoveries of the largest ($`q=0.97`$, V753 Mon; Paper III) and the smallest ($`q=0.066`$, SX Crv; Paper V) known mass ratios among contact binaries.

The DDO survey is characterized by moderate random errors of about 1 – 2 km s-1 for the orbital parameters, $`V_0`$, $`K_1`$ and $`K_2`$, and – upon completion – can serve as a useful database of parameters of very close binary systems. We are aware, however, that our final parameters contain systematic uncertainties resulting from our radial-velocity measurement techniques. While the use of the broadening functions permitted us to analyze close binaries in several multiple, visual/spectroscopic systems providing data which were too “difficult” before, our extraction of individual radial velocities from the broadening functions, through Gaussian fitting, is a disputable approach for contact binary systems. Because the line-broadening for such systems is very strong, comparable with orbital velocities of hundreds of km s-1, and – in fact – somewhat asymmetric, our measuring technique may lead to systematic errors reaching levels of 5 – 7 km s-1 or even more. Paradoxically, through the use of the broadening functions in place of the cross-correlation functions, we have uncovered real physical reasons why the Gaussian approximation is only barely appropriate. The correct approach avoiding the systematic errors would be to model the broadening functions and determine the radial velocities in terms of the mass ratio, $`q`$, and the scaling factor, ($`K_1+K_2`$), with the shift, $`V_0`$. The models would require independent input from parallel solution of light curves, providing the orbital inclination angle, $`i`$, as well as the degree-of-contact, $`f`$. Currently, most of the program targets have not had their light-curves solved, and even if some attempts have been made, we would not trust them for the following simple reason: We have seen so many cases of the spectroscopic mass ratio different from the previous photometric mass-ratio determinations, $`q_{sp}q_{phot}`$, that we feel very strongly that the values of $`q_{phot}`$ are usually not properly constrained and may be plainly wrong444Totally eclipsing systems are an exception, as pointed by Mochnacki & Doughty (1972a, b), but then chances of total eclipses depend on the mass-ratio itself (a wider range of inclinations for small values of $`q`$), producing a very complex bias in the uncertainties of $`q_{phot}`$., leading to entirely incorrect combinations of orbital parameters.

We envisage that the results of this survey will provide just a first stage of an iterative process. In future, our spectroscopic values of mass ratio, $`q_{sp}`$, should permit solution of light curves which were previously unsolvable because to the poorly constrained mass ratios. The derived information on ($`i`$, $`f`$) pairs would permit, in turn, a re-discussion of the broadening functions and determination of the final orbital parameters, free of systematic uncertainties.

Concerning the instrumental developments at the DDO: Soon, we plan to start using a new CCD system based on a much more sensitive detector. While the analysis of the data should remain the same as described above, we may have to select the targets more discriminately. In particular, it may turn out impractical to observe all binaries with periods shorter than one day down to to the expected limiting magnitude of about 12.5 magnitude. Indeed, from the point of astrophysical usefulness, it would be advantageous to reduce the deficit of the intrinsically faint contact systems among spectroscopically studied binaries of the magnitude-limited sample, by attempting to form a volume-limited sample through giving preference to very short-period systems.

While many persons have participated in this program and have either co-authored the previous papers or their contributions have been acknowledged there, special thanks are due to Dr. Hilmar Duerbeck who contributed to setting the goals of the program in its early stages when it was concerned mostly with the center-of-mass velocities for contact binaries for a planned spatial-velocity investigation. The author would like to thank Stefan Mochnacki and Mel Blake for reading and commenting on an early version of the paper. Thanks are also due to the anonymous referee for two very careful and constructive reviews. Support from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada is acknowledged with gratitude.

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# A Lorentzian cure for Euclidean troublesTalk presented by R. Loll.

## 1 Lorentzian path integrals for gravity

The progress of the last few years has established the method of Lorentzian dynamical triangulations (LDT) as a serious candidate for a non-perturbative theory of quantum gravity in four dimensions. In this approach one tries to define quantum gravity as the continuum limit of a statistical sum over Lorentzian dynamically triangulated space-times . The transition amplitudes $`G`$ with respect to discrete proper time $`t`$ are given by sums

$$G(\tau _1,\tau _2,t)=\underset{T,T=\tau _1\tau _2}{}\frac{1}{C_T}\text{e}^{iS(T)}$$
(1)
over inequivalent Lorentzian triangulations $`T`$ with three-dimensional spatial boundary triangulations $`\tau _1`$ and $`\tau _2`$, weighted by the gravitational Einstein action of $`T`$ in Regge form, and including a discrete symmetry factor $`C_T`$.

Expression (1) looks unmanageable at first, but can be converted into a perfectly well-defined real state sum by means of a non-perturbative Wick rotation which maps each Lorentzian triangulation uniquely to a Euclidean one,

$$T^{\mathrm{lor}}T^{\mathrm{eu}},$$
(2)
and the associated amplitudes to real Boltzmann weights according to

$$\text{e}^{iS^{\mathrm{lor}}(T^{\mathrm{lor}})}\text{e}^{S^{\mathrm{eu}}(T^{\mathrm{eu}})}.$$
(3)
What is more, the Wick-rotated version of the sum (1) over infinitely many Lorentzian triangulated manifolds converges for sufficiently large (positive) bare cosmological constant.

It has already been shown in space-time dimensions two and three that the Lorentzian approach is inequivalent to the older method of Euclidean dynamical triangulations, whose starting point is a set of Euclidean and not of Lorentzian space-times. Last year’s plenary talk at Lattice 2000 on the subject  contained a more detailed account of why in higher dimensions the Lorentzian approach seems to be preferable.

## 2 The conformal-factor problem

Any non-perturbative path-integral approach to gravity using complex weights $`\text{e}^{iS}`$ must answer the question of how it achieves convergence, and any path integral using Boltzmann weights $`\text{e}^S`$ in dimension $`d3`$ must address the question of how it deals with the unboundedness of the gravitational action.

The latter problem arises through the unusual behaviour of the conformal mode $`\lambda (x)`$ which determines the local scale factor of the metric $`g_{\mu \nu }(x)`$. Isolating its contribution to the kinetic part of the gravitational action, one finds that it appears with the wrong sign, rendering the action unbounded from below. This is most easily seen by applying a conformal transformation (not usually a gauge transformation) to the Einstein action

$$S=kd^dx\sqrt{g}(R+\mathrm{})$$
(4)
in dimension $`d3`$. Under $`g_{\mu \nu }g_{\mu \nu }^{}=\text{e}^\lambda g_{\mu \nu }`$, one may write the resulting new action as

$$S^{}=d^dx\sqrt{g^{}}((_0\lambda )^2+\mathrm{}).$$
(5)
The corresponding Euclidean weight factor is therefore of the form

$$\text{e}^S^{}=\text{e}^{{\scriptscriptstyle (\dot{\lambda }^2+\mathrm{})}},$$
(6)
which can grow without bound, thus spelling potential disaster for the Euclidean path integral. Perturbatively or in simple minisuperspace models, this problem is “fixed” by adopting some prescription of how the functional $`\lambda `$-integration is to be deformed into the complex $`\lambda `$-plane. The problem is that such prescriptions are ad-hoc, non-unique and cannot in any obvious way be translated to a non-perturbative context.

This raises the question of how the non-perturbative LDT approach – which after Wick-rotating operates with weights $`\text{e}^S`$ – overcomes this difficulty. First, it turns out that as a result of the discretization, the LDT action is not unbounded below, but has a minimum for fixed discrete space-time volume $`N_d`$. For example, in $`d=3`$ the Euclidean action is

$$S=N_3\left(\frac{k_0}{4}\frac{N_{2,2}}{N_3}+(k_3\frac{k_0}{4})\right),$$
(7)
and is therefore minimized when the ratio $`\tau :=N_{2,2}/N_3`$, $`0\tau 1`$, of the number of so-called 2-2 tetrahedral building blocks (c.f. ) to the total number $`N_3`$ of tetrahedra is minimal. One can construct explicit triangulations of arbitrary size for which $`\tau 0`$. They correspond to space-times with seemingly large fluctuations of the conformal factor in proper time, so that neighbouring spatial slices approximately decouple.

What must then be investigated dynamically is whether in the continuum limit the expectation value $`\tau `$ stays at its minimum (indicative of a dominance of the kinetic conformal term) or is bounded away from zero. Our numerical analysis in $`d=3`$  has shown that $`\tau >0`$ for all finite values of the inverse gravitational coupling $`k_0`$! (Note that this is not true in the Euclidean case where for sufficiently large $`k_0`$, the path integral is peaked at configurations with minimal action.) This means that although “sick” configurations with large conformal excitations are present in the path integral, they are entropically suppressed and play no role in the continuum limit of the Lorentzian approach.

It is very interesting to understand whether and how this non-perturbative result can possibly be understood from a continuum point of view. Such an explanation has been provided recently by a continuum path-integral calculation in proper-time gauge . Without attempting to evaluate the full path integral (which is pretty much impossible because of its non-Gaussian nature), the authors concentrate on the integral over the conformal factor. This can actually be done after borrowing an assumption on the renormalization of the propagator from a previous successful application in two-dimensional gravity . One finds that the conformal kinetic term in the action is cancelled by a corresponding contribution from the effective measure, coming from a Faddeev-Popov determinant which arises during gauge-fixing. Therefore, in agreement with arguments from a canonical treatment of gravity, the conformal mode is not a propagating degree of freedom. As in the discrete case, it is not just the action contribution, but also the non-trivial path integral measure that plays a decisive role in the argument.

In an attempt to study the cancellation mechanism for the conformal mode explicitly for a Lorentzian dynamically triangulated model, various reduced cosmological models in 2+1 dimensions are being investigated ( and work in progress). One of the simplest discrete models one can consider has flat tori $`T^2`$ as its spatial slices at constant integer-$`t`$. For simplicity, we can choose to obtain such tori by identifying the opposite boundaries of a strip of length $`l_t`$ and width $`m_t`$ of a regular triangulation of the flat two-plane so that the associated Teichmüller parameter $`\tau _t`$ is purely imaginary ($`\tau _t=im_t/l_t`$).

The Einstein action associated with a “space-time sandwich” $`[t,t+1]`$ is given by

$`S[t,t+1]=\alpha (l_t+l_{t+1})(m_t+m_{t+1})`$
$`\beta (l_tl_{t+1})(m_tm_{t+1}),`$ (8)
where the (positive) couplings $`\alpha `$ and $`\beta `$ are functions of the bare gravitational and cosmological coupling constants. We see that even this simple model suffers potentially from a conformal factor problem, due to the presence of the difference term in (8), leading to a weight factor

$$\text{e}^S\text{e}^{\beta \dot{l}\dot{m}}.$$
(9)
Clearly this term is maximized by having spatial slices of minimal length and width alternating with slices of maximal $`l`$ and $`m`$. In line with our previous argument we expect that a cancellation of this conformal divergence can only be achieved if we allow for sufficiently many interpolating 3d geometries in between the slices of integer-$`t`$, so that there is a chance of “entropy winning over energy”. One can show that for the most restrictive way of interpolating (requiring that also the sections at half-integer times should be flat) this does not happen. There is not enough entropy and the model does not possess a continuum limit.

## 3 Summary

Any gravitational path integral that uses Euclidean weight factors must address the question of how it deals with the potential problems caused by the unboundedness of the gravitational action. Since this situation arises in Lorentzian dynamical triangulations after one has performed the Wick rotation, it is of great interest to understand the role of the conformal divergence in this context.

We have presented strong evidence from both discrete and continuum approaches that in a proper, non-perturbative formulation the conformal sickness seen in perturbative or symmetry-reduced treatments of the gravitational path integral is absent. This can happen because the kinetic conformal term in the action is compensated by non-trivial contributions coming from the path-integral measure.

This rather satisfactory result shows that there is nothing wrong in principle with path-integral formulations of quantum gravity. It is in line with expectations from canonical formulations where at least at the classical level the conformal mode is unphysical and non-propagating. It also suggests that problems in making minisuperspace path integrals well-defined may have their root in the “lack of entropy” as a result of imposing too stringent symmetry assumptions.

In the case of dynamical triangulations, starting from discrete geometries of Lorentzian signature seems to be crucial for achieving a cancellation of the conformal divergence. This result gives us further confidence in the method of Lorentzian dynamical triangulations as a pathway to a theory of four-dimensional quantum gravity.


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# Infrared Photometric Variability of GX13+1 and GX17+2

## 1. Introduction

In low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs), mass is transferred from a late-type star to its highly compact companion, either a neutron star or a black hole, via an accretion disc. These systems can be classified according to location within the Galaxy, accretion characteristics, and luminosity (van Paradijs & McClintock 1995). Mapping of the X-ray sky has revealed a dozen bright X-ray sources within $`15^{}`$ longitude and $`2^{}`$ latitude of the Galactic Centre (Warwick et al. 1988). Known as the “galactic bulge” or “bright bulge” sources (henceforth referred to as “GBS”), these LMXBs are among the most luminous X-ray sources in the Galaxy (typical $`L_X10^{38}`$ erg s-1). However, the GBS remain the most poorly understood group of LMXBs, due to the heavy obscuration in the direction of the Galactic bulge which makes optical study nearly impossible. The GBS are thought to be neutron star LMXBs, and quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) have been detected in several systems (e.g.van der Klis 1989). Attempts to detect orbital variability in the GBS have generally been unsuccessful, suggesting that their periods may be longer than those of canonical LMXBs (Charles & Naylor 1992, hereafter CN92). On the basis of their X-ray colour-colour diagrams, neutron star LMXBs have also been divided into two classes, known as $`Z`$ and atoll sources (see van der Klis 1995 for a review). In this scheme, six of the brightest neutron star LMXBs (which includes several of the GBS) are classified as $`Z`$ sources, while the remainder fall into the atoll category. However, recently this distinction has come into question, as several atoll sources show $`Z`$-type colour-colour diagrams when examined on a long timescale (Muno et al. 2001, Gierlinski & Done 2001). Nevertheless clear differences remain between the X-ray luminosity and spectral evolution of the canonical $`Z`$ sources and that of the atolls.

The infrared provides us with an ideal window for observing these highly obscured systems. Observing in the IR has two primary advantages: the late-type secondaries in LMXBs are brighter relative to the accretion discs, and, more importantly for the GBS, the ratio of $`V`$\- to $`K`$-band extinction is nearly 10 (Naylor, Charles, & Longmore 1991, hereafter NCL91). Over the past eight years, we have developed a program of IR observations of X-ray binaries (XRBs), beginning with the discovery via colours or variability of candidates for the IR counterparts to the X-ray sources using precise X-ray and radio locations (NCL91). Following this photometric survey we performed a spectroscopic survey of LMXBs, obtaining IR spectra of a number of systems, including Sco X-1, GX13+1, and Sco X-2 (Bandyopadhyay et al. 1997 and 1999, hereafter B97 and B99). The spectra enabled us to place constraints on the spectral types of the mass donors in these systems, indicating that the secondaries in the GBS may be evolved rather than main-sequence stars.

If, as the evidence suggests, the companion stars in the GBS are indeed evolved stars, we would expect any variability in the IR light curve due to the orbital period to occur on a timescale of days or weeks, rather than hours as in canonical LMXBs. To search for long orbital periods in the atoll LMXB GX13+1 and the $`Z`$ LMXB GX17+2 (as classified by Hasinger & van der Klis 1989), in 1997 we obtained IR photometry of both sources over a period of approximately 6 weeks. An IR study of the GX13+1 field mapped by the Einstein HRI in X-rays revealed a variable IR source at the Grindlay & Seaquist (1986) radio position of GX13+1 (CN92). The observed variability made this IR source a very strong candidate for the counterpart to GX13+1. The $`K`$-band spectrum we obtained in 1997 showed Brackett $`\gamma `$ emission, confirming the identification of the IR counterpart (B97). An additional spectrum obtained in 1999 with improved S/N exhibited both Brackett $`\gamma `$ emission and CO absorption bands; using the technique of optimal subtraction, we determined the most likely spectral type of the secondary to be a K5 iii (B99).

In contrast to GX13+1, detection of the true IR counterpart to GX17+2 has proven more difficult. GX17+2 was optically “identified” on positional grounds alone with a G star now known as NP Ser more than 25 years ago (Tarenghi & Reina 1972). However, the absence of any optical variability or spectroscopic peculiarity in a star purported to be associated with one of the most luminous X-ray sources in the Galaxy has long been a major puzzle, with most explanations requiring that the G star be simply a line-of-sight object. Furthermore, the IR counterpart to NP Ser has shown variability, and a consistent fit for the optical and IR colours, extinction, distance, and spectral type could not be found (NCL91). The situation has recently been clarified by HST observations of GX17+2 which resolved NP Ser into two components, the fainter of which, labelled “star A” by Deutsch et al. (1999), has been suggested as the true IR counterpart to GX17+2. The unusual nature of star A has been demonstrated by Callanan et al. ’s (1999) Keck photometry which suggests that star A exhibits extremely large ($``$3.5-4 mag) IR variability. In this paper we present long-term ($``$5-week) light curves of GX13+1 and GX17+2 from July and August 1997; both sources show clear variability of greater than 0.5 magnitudes in the $`K`$-band.

## 2. Observations and Data Reduction

We obtained $`K`$-band photometry during 14 nights in 1997 between 16 July and 23 August using the Ohio State Infrared Imager/Spectrometer (OSIRIS) on the Perkins 1.8m telescope of the Ohio State and Ohio Wesleyan Universities at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. OSIRIS uses a 256$`\times `$256 pixel HgCdTe NICMOS III detector; see DePoy et al. (1993) for further details on the design of this instrument. The images were taken with the f/7 camera which provides a 2.7 arcmin2 field of view at a resolution of $`0.63^{\prime \prime }`$ per pixel. The summer monsoon season affected the observing run, causing some variability in the data quality; however, typical images were obtained with $`\stackrel{<}{}2^{\prime \prime }`$ seeing. On each night, a series of five consecutive 60 second (2 second on-chip integrations $`\times `$ 30 coadds) exposures were obtained for each target, with offsets of $`20^{\prime \prime }`$ between each exposure. The position of the object on the array was moved between exposures so that the group could later be median-stacked to produce a sky frame.

The images were processed by first running a simple interpolation program to remove bad pixels. A median-combined sky image was then created from the five exposures and subtracted from each image. The resulting sky-subtracted frames were flat-fielded with an image constructed from the difference of dome flats obtained with the flat-field lamps on and off. The data were then analyzed using the IRAF reduction task “apphot” with a 4.5 pixel aperture which was chosen to maximize the target signal relative to the sky background. Relative photometry was performed using several field standards. Finally, absolute photometry of the local standards was performed. A journal of the IR observations with the calculated $`K`$ magnitudes of GX13+1 and GX17+2 is presented in Table 1.

## 3. Results

### 3.1. GX13+1

Our $`K`$-band light curve of GX13+1 is presented in Figure 1; these data constitute the longest IR light curve of this source published to date. Substantial variability of $``$0.6 mag is clearly present over the six weeks of observation. Visual inspection of the GX13+1 light curve suggests a characteristic variability timescale of order $``$20 d. Unfortunately, the IR data are not sufficiently well sampled, nor is the observational baseline long enough, for a formal statistical analysis to yield meaningful results as to the presence of $``$20 d periodicities. The lower panel of Figure 1 shows the ASM 1-day average X-ray light curve of GX13+1 during the interval of our observational program.

The most striking feature of the CN92 light curve (which spanned 10 days) was an increase in brightness of $``$0.4 mag over two days (from $`K`$ 12.3 to 11.9). Subsequent nights did not show similar variability, and monitoring of GX13+1 over a period of 5 hrs did not show any modulation at a level greater than 0.1 mag. Groot et al. (1996; hereafter G96) obtained Gunn z band (0.9-1.0 $`\mu `$m) photometry of GX13+1 over a period of 18 days, and found clear variability on a timescale of $``$10 days; using a Lomb-Scargle periodigram they estimate the maximum power to be at 12.6 days, with an estimated error of $``$1 day. However, they note that the time interval covered by their observations was too short to formally establish a periodicity in the system. Analysis of 1 year of RXTE ASM monitoring of GX13+1 revealed a possible 25.2 d modulation in the X-ray light curve (Corbet 1996). In contrast to the CN92 and G96 observations, Wachter (1996; hereafter W96) found a 19.5 hr modulation from 4 nights of CTIO $`K`$-band photometry. They also report the detection of the $``$0.4 mag variability seen by CN92, and suggest that this variation occurs on a much shorter timescale than the 12.5 or 25.2 d periods which had been suggested by G96 and Corbet.

To search for evidence of our $``$20 day modulation in the X-ray light curve of GX13+1, we re-analyzed the data from the RXTE ASM. The ASM light curve now spans approximately 5 years, in contrast to the $``$1 year available for Corbet’s 1996 analysis. Using the publically available “definitive” ASM dwell data from the RXTE archive, we used the “perdgrm” task in FTOOLS v5.0.1 to perform a power spectral analysis on the GX13+1 data. The maximum peak is found at $``$26.7 days; however, this peak is not stable. When the X-ray light curve is divided into 5 $``$1-year intervals, the frequency of the maximum peak varies between $``$24-45 days. To illustrate the significance and variability of this modulation, we present a 2-D “dynamical” power spectrum of the GX13+1 ASM data in Figure 2. This power spectrum is constructed from the 1-day average light curve, summing the 3 energy channels for an energy range of 1.5-12 keV. In order to search for any periodic phenomena which might be transitory in nature, the $``$1700 days of data were divided into 200 day subsets, but with a spacing between them of only 100 days (i.e. overlapping the subsets each side). Each subset was subjected to a Lomb-Scargle periodogram analysis covering the period range 4-50 days, and the resulting periodogram highlights any changes in temporal behaviour. Figure 2 shows that variations on timescales of 20–30 days are present in the power spectra of GX13+1. Specifically, during the intervals of MJD 51300-51400 and 51700-51800 significant peaks (contour levels $`geq`$12, corresponding to a 99% confidence level) are seen at frequencies of $``$27 and $``$22 days respectively. However, these are of a quasi-periodic nature and no truly periodic signal is consistently present at this frequency for the duration of the ASM dataset. It seems likely that the 25.2 d variability reported by Corbet (1996) from the first year of RXTE monitoring of GX13+1 is also part of this long-timescale quasi-periodicity.

On the basis of the currently available IR photometry, we are not able to identify the $``$20 d variability as an orbital modulation. A period of this length might also be associated with the precession of a warped accretion disc, with the true orbital period being substantially shorter. Cyg X-2 is an example of this scenario; it has a 9.8 d orbital period, determined from optical spectroscopy (Casares, Charles, & Kuulkers 1998), and a 78 d period determined from X-ray light curves and attributed to disc precession (Wijnands, Kuulkers, & Smale 1996). If the ratio $`P_{disc}/P_{orb}`$ is similar for GX13+1, we might expect an orbital period of $``$2.5 days for GX13+1 for a 20 d disc precession period.

However, $`K`$-band spectroscopy has determined the most likely spectral type of the secondary in GX13+1 to be a K5iii (B99). This spectral type correlates well with a 20 d orbital period for GX13+1 and rules out a period of either $``$2.5 days or the 19.5 hr period proposed by W96. It therefore seems more likely that the observed $``$20 d variability may be an orbital modulation rather than being caused by a precessing disc. We note that the large IR variability and the low $`L_X/L_{opt}`$ ratio in GX13+1 indicates that the disc is large and that X-ray heating of the disc and secondary contributes significantly to the IR flux from the system (CN92). This conclusion was supported by the IR spectroscopy, which indicated that the K5iii secondary probably contributes less than half of the $`K`$-band flux. We also note that the IR and X-ray light curves shown in Figure 1 appear generally uncorrelated on a timescale of $``$weeks, although the sampling of the IR light curve is insufficient for a formal correlation analysis. Therefore we suggest that the IR variability of GX13+1 arises from a combination of causes, with short-term IR emission from the X-ray heating superimposed on an underlying long orbital modulation. This scenario would account for both the long-term ($``$10 days) variability shown in Figure 1 and the shorter timescale variability seen by CN92 and W96, while simultaneously being consistent with the classification of the companion as a K5iii star ($`M5M_{},R25\text{R}\text{}`$).

### 3.2. GX17+2

We observed the field of the GBS GX17+2 on 13 nights (see Table 1) in 1997; the $`K`$-band light curve is presented in Figure 3. Variability over $``$0.8 mag is clearly present over the six weeks of observation. Our $`K`$-band light curve again confirms the variability seen by NCL91, and extends it to show that the IR source varies over $``$0.6-0.7 mag on a timescale of $``$10 days. However, our data are not sufficiently well-sampled to determine a periodicity in the IR photometric modulation. To search for an X-ray period of comparable length, we performed a power spectral analysis of the RXTE ASM dwell data of GX17+2. Similarly to our analysis for GX13+1, in Figure 4 we present a dynamical power spectrum of the GX17+2 ASM 1-day average light curve. We find no significant peak below $``$200 days.

Using HST IR observations of the GX17+2 field, Deutsch et al. (1999; hereafter D99) were able to identify a new candidate counterpart to the X-ray source, located 0.9” north of NP Ser. They found a photometric magnitude of $`H`$ 19.8 and an $`H`$-band reddening of 2 for this new candidate, labelled “star A”. Subsequently, Callanan et al. (1999) obtained a Keck $`K`$-band image of GX17+2 and were able to resolve NP Ser and star A, deriving $`K=`$ 14.5 and 14.9 respectively. Archival $`K`$-band images from 1998 examined by Anderson et al. (1999) also showed star A to be only slightly fainter than NP Ser. However, the $`H`$-band magnitude and reddening found by D99 implies $`K`$18.5 for star A at the time of their observations. Taken together, these observations suggest that star A exhibits $``$3.5-4 magnitudes of variability in the $`K`$ band. This extreme modulation is consistent with the prediction of D99 that the optical/IR counterpart to GX17+2 should be highly variable.

Our $`K`$-band images obtained with the 1.8m telescope at Lowell are of insufficient resolution to resolve NP Ser and star A. However, the blended light curve of the two stars, shown in Figure 3, does exhibit significant variability. Assuming that at the peak of its brightness, star A has $`K`$ 14.9, and that at minimum $`K18.5`$, we can estimate the effect of the variability of star A on the blended light curve of the two stars. At star A’s minimum, we expect to see flux only from NP Ser at its presumably constant magnitude, $`K`$14.5. When star A is at its maximum, we observe the combined flux of both NP Ser and star A, which are then of roughly similar magnitude. At the maximum of GX17+2, then, we would expect to see an increase in the blended light curve of 0.75 magnitudes from its minimum of 14.5. This estimate is clearly consistent with the modulation shown in our GX17+2 light curve, which varies by $``$0.8 magnitudes. Note that the minimum values we observed for the NP Ser/star A blend are consistent within the errors with $`K`$14.5, the magnitude of NP Ser. Therefore the photometric modulation seen in our blended light curve of NP Ser and star A is almost certainly a result of the large variability intrinsic to star A. The combination of the revised positional estimate for GX17+2 and the observed extreme photometric variability of star A are strong evidence for the identification of star A as the IR counterpart to GX17+2. We note that the ASM light curve of GX17+2 (shown in the lower panel of Figure 3) is remarkable for its constancy compared to the dramatic IR variability during this same interval, similar to the behaviour seen in GX13+1 (Figure 1).

## 4. Conclusions

Our $`K`$-band photometry of GX13+1 shows evidence for a $``$20 d modulation. We note that a 20 d period correlates extremely well with that expected for a Roche-lobe filling binary with a K5iii secondary (B99). On the basis of the observed variability in the IR together with the identification of the secondary’s spectral type, we suggest that the observed $``$20 d modulation may be the orbital period of GX13+1. We note that to conclusively identify any period of order $``$20 d in GX13+1, it will be necessary to obtain a well-sampled IR light curve with a baseline of $`\stackrel{>}{}`$60 d. We also find evidence in the GX13+1 ASM X-ray light curve for quasi-periodicity on a timescale of 20-30 days, but this modulation is not consistently present throughout the $``$5-year dataset.

We also observe a $``$10 d modulation in the IR light curve of GX17+2. Our photometry was performed on the blend of the foreground star NP Ser and the recently identified counterpart candidate star A; the observed variability is consistent with that expected as a result of a large modulation of the fainter of the two stars. The IR photometric modulation and revised position for GX17+2 strongly supports the identification of star A as the true counterpart to the X-ray source. Previous attempts at obtaining an IR spectrum of GX17+2 have been unsuccessful, no doubt as a result of the small separation between NP Ser and star A as well as star A’s large photometric variability which would make it nearly undetectable for a significant fraction of its IR period. However, now that these difficulties are recognized, future IR spectroscopic observations of star A will hopefully prove more successful in investigating the physical nature of the extraordinary variability of the true IR counterpart.

## 5. Acknowledgements

The data reduction was carried out using the $`\mathrm{iraf}`$ and $`\mathrm{ark}`$ software packages at the Oxford University Starlink node. A portion of this work was performed while RMB was supported by a National Research Council Research Associateship at the Naval Research Laboratory.