Component Masses of the Young Spectroscopic Binary UZ Tau E

Abstract

We report estimates of the masses of the component stars in the pre-main-sequence spectroscopic binary UZ Tau E. These results come from the combination of our measurements of the mass ratio, M2/M1=0.28 +/-0.01, obtained using high resolution H-band spectroscopy, with the total mass of the system, (1.31 +/-0.08)(D/140pc) M_sun, derived from millimeter observations of the circumbinary disk (Simon et al. 2000). The masses of the primary and secondary are (1.016 +/-0.065)(D/140pc) M_sun and (0.294 +/-0.027)(D/140pc) M_sun, respectively. Using the orbital parameters determined from our six epochs of observation, we find that the inclination of the binary orbit, 59.8 +/-4.4 degrees, is consistent with that determined for the circumbinary disk from the millimeter observations, indicating that the disk and binary orbits are probably coplanar.

4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters