Kepler eclipsing binaries with Gaia data

The Kepler space telescope produced high-precision photometry of nearly 3000 eclipsing binary systems, providing a unique opportunity to study the O'Connell effect in a large sample and in greater detail than in previous studies. We have characterized the observational properties-including temperature, luminosity, and eclipse depth-of a set of 212 systems (7.3% of Kepler eclipsing binaries) that display a maxima flux difference of at least 1%, representing the largest sample of O'Connell effect systems yet studied.

We explored how these characteristics correlate with each other to help understand the O'Connell effect's underlying causes. We also describe some system classes with peculiar light-curve features aside from the O'Connell effect (~24% of our sample), including temporal variation and asymmetric minima. We found that the O'Connell effect size's correlations with period and temperature are inconsistent with Kouzuma's starspot study.