A Study of the Reflection Effect in Eclipsing Binaries

By means of approximations, the equations of Milne for re-radiation from stellar surfaces are applied to close binaries. The variation of the reflection effect with phase is computed, and a more cwcurate approximation than the one in present use is proposed. The exaggerated darkening at the limb shown by the secondary disk, as seen at second- ary minimum, is illustrated, and its possible effect on solutions of the light-curve dis- cussed. An approximate correction to the spectroscop~ically determined masses of a binary, to account for the asymmetrical lighting of the secondary as seen at quadrature, is com- puted. A large discrepancy between the computed and observed absolute magnitudes of the reflection effect is illustrated and discussed