Band 237.
Nr. 5668.
On the Mass Ratio in Binary Stars and the Hypothesis of the Secular Decrease of Mass. By G. Shajn.
I .
Recently it was found by Vogtl) and independently by the writere) that the mass ratio in visual double stars increases with advancing type along the sequence M , K --.
A . . -K. . . The same relation is also suspected in spectro- scopic binaries although the evidence is not conclusivea) (Aitken, Jeans, Vogf, Struve and Beer). The increase of the mass ratio with advancing type was also found by the writer for the eclipsing binaries4).
Some authors find in this peculiarity an evidence in favour of the hypothesis of the secular decrease of mass. Jeans and Eddington6) are the first to express the idea that a large proportion of the star's mass is lost during its life-time by the radiation. This conjecture has gained enormously in probability since Eddiegton has shown that a radiation from a star is approximately a function of the star's mass, and that the known statistical Russell-Hertssjrung diagram may be interpreted as indicating the course of evolution only by accepting the loss of the star's mass to an important extent. l) Z . f. Phys. 26.135. ") Meddel. Astron. Observ. Upsala Nr. 25. 8 ) Report Pulk. Observ. 1922, 107-9 (russian); Bull. Pulk. Observ. 1 0 , No.96, 343. lo) MN 88.33. AJ 897. I*) BAN 3, No. 1 0 1 .