Absolute properties of the oscillating eclipsing Algol XZ Ursae Majoris

Abstract

It is known from archival TESS data that the semi-detached Algol system XZ Ursae Majoris (UMa) is one of the candidate binary stars exhibiting short-period oscillations. We secured new high-resolution spectroscopic observations for the program target to better understand its binary and pulsation properties. From the echelle spectra, the radial velocities (RVs) of the eclipsing pair were derived, and the atmosphere parameters of the primary component were measured to be vAsin i = 80 ± 7 km s−1, Teff, A = 7940 ± 120 K, and [M/H] = −0.15 ± 0.20. The combined solution of our double-lined RVs and the TESS data provides robust physical parameters for XZ UMa with mass and radius measurement precision of better than 2%. The outside-eclipse residuals from a mean light curve in the 0.002 phase bin were used for multifrequency analyses, and we extracted 32 significant frequencies (22 in <5.0 d−1 and 10 in 39–52 d−1). The low frequencies may be mostly aliasing sidelobes, while six of the high frequencies may be pulsation signals arising from the detached primary located inside the δ Sct domain. Their periods, pulsation constants, and pulsational–orbital-period ratios indicate that the mass-accreting primary star is a δ Sct pulsator and, hence, XZ UMa is an oscillating eclipsing Algol.