W Ursae Majoris-type (W UMa-type) variable stars are contact eclipsing binary stars whose evolution is unknown. Modelling to determine the physical parameters of as many W UMa-type variable stars as possible might provide some insight as to how these contact binaries form and evolve. The All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) has discovered over ve thousand of these systems. Using data from the ASAS and from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) project, models of selected ASAS contact binaries are being created to determine their physical parameters. Some W UMa-type variable stars are known to undergo changes in orbital period. For selected ASAS contact binaries, a period analysis has been performed using SuperWASP data to determine if the systems are undergoing changes in orbital period. Results of the modelling and period analyses of selected systems are presented. / Thesis (M. Sc. (Astronomy))

W Ursae Majoris-type (W UMa-type) variable stars are contact eclipsing binary stars whose evolution is unknown. Modelling to determine the physical parameters of as many W UMa-type variable stars as possible might provide some insight as to how these contact binaries form and evolve. The All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) has discovered over ve thousand of these systems. Using data from the ASAS and from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (SuperWASP) project, models of selected ASAS contact binaries are being created to determine their physical parameters. Some W UMa-type variable stars are known to undergo changes in orbital period. For selected ASAS contact binaries, a period analysis has been performed using SuperWASP data to determine if the systems are undergoing changes in orbital period. Results of the modelling and period analyses of selected systems are presented. / Thesis (M. Sc. (Astronomy))

This dissertation describes a new detailed abundance study of field red horizontal branch stars, RR Lyrae stars and blue horizontal branch stars. To carry out this study, we obtained high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio echelle spectra at the McDonald observatory and Las Campanas Observatory. In addition, new pulsational emphemerides were derived to analyze the spectra of RR Lyrae stars throughout the pulsational cycles. We find that the abundance ratios are generally consistent with those of field stars of similar metallicity in different evolutionary stages and throughout the pulsational cycles for RR Lyrae stars. We also estimated the red and blue edges of the RR Lyrae instability strip using the derived effective temperatures of RHB and BHB stars. New variations between microturbulence and effective temperature are found among the HB population. For the first time the variation of microturbulence as a function of phase is empirically shown to be similar to the theoretical calculations. Finally, through the study of a rare eclipsing sdB and M dwarf binary, we discovered an unusually low mass for this type of HB star, which observationally proved the existence of a new group of low-mass sdB stars that was theoretically predicted in the past. / text

This thesis contains spectroscopic analyses of two unusual binaries with circum- stellar disks - β Lyr and ǫ Aur. Several hundred optical spectra were processed and analyzed for both binaries which led to several original findings. For β Lyr, it was a discovery of a weak shell spectrum originating in a disk pseudophotosphere and a hidden satellite spectrum, present only during eclipses, which arise from additional absorption of the primary light passing through the gaseous envelope around the secondary. For ǫ Aur, it led to the discovery of the apparent multiperiodic line vari- ability occuring during the current eclipse with a dominant and common period of 66d .21 and to an explanation of complex Hα line profiles during the eclipse which is again caused by an additional absorption of a primary light in an atmosphere of a dark disk around a secondary. Also rich series of radial velocity measurements and photometric observations were collected and used to determine a new precise orbital solution for ǫ Aur. Further, a hydrodynamical and a radiative modeling of a discontinuous mass transfer in a close binary system was carried out which resulted in a formation of an elongated disk with a slow prograde revolution, demonstrated itself by double emission Hα line profiles that exhibit V/R variations.