Open AccessVLA and MERLIN observations of RZ Cassiopeiae
Author(s) -
Gunn A. G.,
Brady P. A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2966.2003.07267.x
Subject(s) - physics , merlin (protein) , astrophysics , brightness , light curve , eclipse , binary star , astronomy , interferometry , angular diameter , stars , medicine , cancer , suppressor
We present radio interferometric observations of the Algol‐type binary system RZ Cassiopeiae made with the VLA and MERLIN arrays at 6 cm over an incomplete orbital cycle of the system (1.195 d). We detected RZ Cas with both instruments. The images were unresolved in both cases, with angular extents comparable to the synthesized beams. The peak flux density in the VLA image was 1.14 mJy beam −1 and in the MERLIN image it was 0.93 mJy beam −1 . The derived brightness temperatures are 4.02 × 10 8 and 4.35 × 10 8 K and the effective electron energies are 0.347 and 0.346 MeV for the MERLIN and VLA data respectively. The radio light curve shows an interesting modulation centred close to the primary eclipse which seems to correlate with ASCA SIS observations of the system. The results can be interpreted as an emitting region on the outer hemisphere of the cool component aligned along the centroid axis of the binary system.