Cyclic Orbital-period Variations in Eclipsing Binary Systems with Rapid Period Decreases: TU Her, TY Peg, and Y Psc

Abstract

Cyclic variations of the orbital period superposed on a secular period decrease have been found for the Algol-type eclipsing binaries TU Her, TY Peg, and Y Psc. A superposition of two kinds of cyclic variations is observed for TU Her and Y Psc: with periods of 69.4 years and 30.0 years for TU Her, and 34.4 and 23.2 years for Y Psc. One type of oscillation, with a period of 74.3 years, was detected for TY Peg. The cyclic orbital-period variations of TY Peg and Y Psc can be successfully fitted using the light-time effect, and also with magnetic oscillations. In the case of TU Her, the light-time effect is able to explain only one of the cyclic variations, the one with the shorter period.