Fourier analysis of the light curves of eclipsing variables, IV

Abstract

The methods of analysis of the light changes of eclipsing variables in the frequency domain, developed in our previous papers (Kopal, 1975b, c) for total or annular eclipses of arbitrarily limbdarkened stars, have now been extended to the case of partial eclipses of occultation as well as transit type. In Section 2 which follows brief introductory remarks the even Fourier sine coefficients are formulated — in the guise of the momentsA _2m of the light curve — in terms of the elements of the eclipse; and their use for a solution for the elements is detailed in Section 3. A brief appendix containing certain auxiliary tables to facilitate this task concludes the paper.

An extension of the same method to an analysis of the light changes exhibited by close eclipsing systems — in which the photometric proximity effects arising from mutual distortion can no longer be ignored — will be given in the subsequent paper of this series.