Abstract We present a period analysis of the near-contact binary CN And using all available times of light minima. It is revealed that the orbital period exhibits a long-term decrease as well as a small-amplitude cyclic oscillation. This result suggests that the secular period decrease at the rate of dP/dt = −1.4017 × 10−7 d yr−1 is caused by a combination of mass transfer and angular momentum loss due to magnetic braking. The periodic variation with an amplitude of A = 0.0036 d and a period of Pmod = 28.3542 yr should be rooted in the light-time effect of a third body, rather than cyclic magnetic activity.
Keywords stars: binaries: close — stars: binaries: eclipsing — stars: individual: CN And
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