Calibration of the pre-main sequence RS Chamaleontis binary system

Context. The calibration of binary systems with accurately known masses and/or radii provides powerful tools to test stellar structure and evolution theory and to determine the age and helium content of stars. We study the eclipsing double-lined spectroscopic binary system RS Cha, for which we have accurate observations of the parameters of both stars (masses, radii, luminosities, effective temperatures and metallicity). Aims. We have calculated several sets of stellar models for the components of the RS Cha system, with the aim of reproducing simultaneously the available observational constraints and to estimate the age and initial helium abundance of the system. Methods. Using the CESAM stellar evolution code, we model both components starting from the initial mass and metallicity and adjusting the input parameters and physics in order to satisfy the observational constraints. Results. We find that the observations cannot be reproduced if we assume that the abundance ratios are solar but they are satisfied if carbon and nitrogen are depleted in the RS Cha system with respect to the Sun. This is in accordance with the abundances observed in other young stars. The RS Cha system is in an evolutionary stage at the end of the PMS phase where models are not strongly sensitive to various physical uncertainties. However we show that the oscillations of these two stars, which have been detected, would be able to discriminate between different options in the physical description of this evolutionary phase.