2018ApJ...868...30P

We present the analysis of a peculiar W Virginis (pWVir) type II Cepheid, OGLE-LMC-T2CEP-211 (P_puls = 9.393 days), in a double-lined binary system (P_orb = 242 days), which shed light on virtually unknown evolutionary status and structure of pWVir stars. The dynamical mass of the Cepheid (first ever for a type II Cepheid) is 0.64 ± 0.02 M_☉, and the radius R = 25.1 ± 0.3 R_☉. The companion is a massive (5.67 M_☉) main-sequence star obscured by a disk. Such a configuration suggests a mass transfer in the system history. We found that originally the system (P_orb^init = 12 days) was composed of 3.5 and 2.8 M_☉ stars, with the current Cepheid being more massive. The system age is now ∼200 Myr, and the Cepheid is almost completely stripped of hydrogen, with helium mass of ∼92% of the total mass. It finished transferring the mass 2.5 Myr ago and is evolving toward lower temperatures passing through the instability strip. Comparison with observations indicates a reasonable 2.7 x 10^–8 M_☉ yr^–1 mass loss from the Cepheid. The companion is most probably a Be main-sequence star with T = 22,000 K and R = 2.5 R_☉. Our results yield a good agreement with a pulsation theory model for a hydrogen-deficient pulsator, confirming the described evolutionary scenario. We detected a two-ring disk (R_disk ∼ 116 R_☉) and a shell (R_shell ∼ 9 R_☉) around the companion, which is probably a combination of the matter from the past mass transfer, the mass being lost by the Cepheid owing to wind and pulsations, and a decretion disk around a rapidly rotating secondary. Our study, together with observational properties of pWVir stars, suggests that the majority of them are products of a similar binary evolution interaction.