Populations of tidal and pulsating variables in eclipsing binaries

¹ Institute of Astronomy (IvS), KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3001, Leuven, Belgium
² Université Paris-Saclay, Université de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
³ Department of Astrophysics, IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9010, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands
⁴ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

^★ Corresponding author: alex.kemp@kuleuven.be

Received: 22 September 2025
Accepted: 3 November 2025

Abstract

Context. In the modern era of large-scale photometric time-domain surveys, relatively rare but information-rich eclipsing binary systems can be leveraged at a population level across the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram to improve our knowledge of stellar evolution. This high-precision photometry is also excellent for assessing and exploiting the asteroseismic properties of such stars and results in a powerful synergy that has great potential for shedding light on how stellar interiors and tides affect stellar evolution and mass transfer.

Aims. In this work, we seek to characterise a large sample of 14 377 main sequence eclipsing binaries in terms of their stellar, astero-seismic, and orbital properties.

Methods. We conducted manual vetting on a sub-set of 4000 targets from our full 14 377 target sample to identify targets with pressure or gravity modes. We inferred stellar properties including mass, the convective core mass, radius, and central H fraction for the primary using the Gaia Data Release 3 effective temperature and luminosity estimates and a grid of asteroseismically calibrated stellar models. We used surface brightness ratio and radius ratio estimates from previous eclipse analyses to study the effect of binarity on our results.

Results. Through our manual vetting, we identified 751 candidate g-mode pulsators, 131 p-mode pulsators, and a further 48 hybrid pulsators. The inferred stellar properties of the hybrid and p-mode pulsators are highly correlated, while the orbital properties of the hybrid pulsators align best with the g-mode pulsators. The g-mode pulsators themselves show a distribution that peaks around the classical γ Dor instability region but extends continuously towards higher masses, with no detectable divide between the classical γ Dor and SPB instability regions. There is evidence at the population level for a heightened level of tidal efficiency in stars showing g-mode or hybrid variability. We corrected the primary mass inference for binarity based on eclipse measurements of the surface brightness and radius ratios, resulting in a relatively small shift towards lower masses.

Conclusions. This work provides a working initial characterisation of this sample from which more detailed analyses folding in aster-oseismic information can be built. It also provides a foundational understanding of the limitations and capabilities of this kind of rapid, scalable analysis that will be highly relevant in planning the exploitation of future large-scale binary surveys.