First study of a low-amplitude eclipsing binary KIC11496078

Abstract We investigate a low-amplitude W UMa binary KIC 11496078 based on Kepler photometric data, and the diagrams of O C maxima and minima of light curves are plotted. The anti-correlated nature of the curves indicates that KIC 11496078 is a binary. We use short cadence mode (SC) data for analyzing the light curve. By performing some analyses, the parameters of the system are determined. The results show that this system has a low mass ratio (q ~ 0.065) and a small fill-out factor (f ~ 0.026). By using the empirical relations, the masses of the two components are estimated to be M 1 = 1.207 M ⊙ and M 2 = 0.075 M ⊙ . In the second stage, we fit a quadratic function to the minima of the eclipses and use coefficients of this function to calculate the rate of orbital periodic changes P ˙ ∼ 3.76 × 10 − 9 d a y y e a r . By assuming mass conservation, we obtain a mass transfer rate of 4.2 × 10 − 8 M ⊙ y e a r from the secondary component to the primary one. We apply the auto-correlation function to the difference between the maxima to calculate the spot rotation period of the system ( 0.3002937 ± 2.81368 E − 6 ); this target shows subsynchronous rotation, which is due to the differential rotation.