A Sample of Eccentric Eclipsing Binaries in TESS

Abstract Eccentric eclipsing binaries (EEBs) are the ideal objects to constrain the tidal theory. During the 2 yr mission, TESS 2 minutes cadence mode obtained high-precision photometry of more than 200,000 objects distributed over almost the entire sky. Among these objects, we identify 368 EEBs, including 23 newly discovered systems, through a detailed analysis of periods, light-curve shapes, and eclipses. We have also adopted the two recent TESS-based eclipsing binary catalogs, bringing our sample size to 514. The eccentricity, argument of periastron, absolute magnitude, and intrinsic color are determined for these EEBs. We find the absolute magnitude M G of EEBs has a span of at least 20 mag. Stars as low as 0.15 M ⊙ and as high as 30 M ⊙ can have an eccentric orbit. Based on the parameters of Gaia Radial Velocity Spectrometer spectra, we find four EEBs contain evolved components, namely, TIC146039664, TIC141809359, TIC428249301, and TIC294261093. Overall, more luminous EEBs have a shorter circularization period. There are peculiarities in the eccentricity distribution of the brightest and faintest EEBs ( M G < 1 and M G > 5). The former may not have a strict cutoff circularization period, while the latter may still have an eccentric orbit at periods shorter than 1 day.