Continued Photometric Monitoring Supports Long-Term Dynamical Evolution in the Young Binary Star-Disk System KH 15D
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We present photometric time series data spanning 2018-2024 that show the effects of temporal dynamics in the binary system KH 15D, a member of the NGC 2264 star forming region. This source exhibits complex eclipsing behavior due to a precessing circumbinary disk or ring that is slightly inclined relative to the orbital plane of the binary. Using g-band and r-band observations from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) over seven observing seasons, we follow the evolution of the KH 15D lightcurve as it continues to emerge from its deepest observed photometric minimum about 15 years ago. Our observations are consistent with previous models that propose a precessing, warped circumbinary disk orbiting KH 15D. We verify the gradual precession of the disk by quantifying the times of eclipse ingresses and egresses. We also examine the central re-brightening within the minima of the phased lightcurve. This feature has increased in amplitude over our observing seasons, and we measure its evolution in both amplitude and phase from year to year. Finally, we assess color as a function of phase and brightness. Our findings support the assertion that line-of-sight variations in disk density and structure, possibly due to clumping, coupled with a precessing circumbinary disk are responsible for the central re-brightening event.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".