SZ Her BVRI light curves

The light curve was completely covered and indicated a significant temperature difference between both components. The light-curve synthesis presented in this paper indicates that the eclipsing binary is a classical Algol-type system with parameters of q=0.472, i=87.57{deg}, and {Delta}(T_1_-T_2_)=2381K; the primary component fills approximately 77% of its limiting lobe and is slightly larger than the lobe-filling secondary component.

More than 1100 times of minimum light spanning more than a century were used to study an orbital behavior of the binary system. It was found that the orbital period of SZ Her varied due to a combination of two periodic variations with cycle lengths of P_3_=85.8yr and P_4_=42.5yr and semi-amplitudes of K_3_=0.013days and K_4_=0.007days, respectively. The most reasonable explanation for these variations is a pair of light-time effects driven by the possible existence of two M-type companions with minimum masses of M_3_=0.22M_{sun}_ and M_4_=0.19M_{sun}_ that are located close to the 2:1 mean motion resonance.