Study on Contact Binary Stars

Dear Colleagues,

In the Universe, more than half of the stars are in the binary star system. A contact binary is one type of close binary where both components fill their Roche lobes and share a common convective envelope. It is estimated that about one of every 500 F, G, and K main sequence stars is a contact binary in our galaxy. The orbital period of a contact binary is generally shorter than 0.5 days. They are very important tools for determining precise physical parameters of stars and for distance measurement. Decades of research on contact binaries have led to significant achievements in understanding stellar formation, evolution, and advancing astrophysics. There are many exciting and rewarding topics about contact binaries that are still controversial; these include, for example, the 0.22 day shortperiod cutoff, the minimum mass ratio, the O’Connell effect, and the thermal relaxation oscillation theory. To better understand these issues, a large number of contact binaries should be observed and analzyed. Due to ground- and space-based photometric surveys, more than one million contact binaries have been detected. This Special Issue aims to foster collaboration and drive collective progress in addressing some of these issues by analyzing a substantial number of contact binaries.

Dr. Kai Li
Dr. Atila Poro
Guest Editors

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