V753 MON: A UNIQUE CLOSE BINARY JUST AFTER THE EVOLUTIONARY STAGE WITH THE SHORTEST PERIOD DURING MASS TRANSFER

We discovered that the O–C curve of V753 Mon shows an upward parabolic change while undergoing a cyclic variation with a period of 13.5 yr. The upward parabolic change reveals a long-term period increase at a rate of P-dot = +7.8 x 10-8 days yr–1. Photometric solutions determined using the Wilson-Devinney method confirm that V753 Mon is a semi-detached binary system where the slightly less massive, hotter component star is transferring mass to the more massive one. This is in agreement with the long-term increase of the orbital period. The increase of the orbital period, the mass ratio very close to unity, and the semi-detached configuration with a less massive lobe-filling component all suggest that V753 Mon is on a key evolutionary stage just after the evolutionary stage with the shortest period during mass transfer. The results in this paper will shed light on the formation of massive contact binaries and the evolution of binary stars. The cyclic oscillation in the O–C diagram indicates that V753 Mon may be a triple system containing an extremely cool stellar companion that may play an important role for the formation and evolution in the binary system