2006-2016 CCD photometry of V723 Cassiopeia

A photometric analysis of the data produced light curves in the optical bands (Bessel B, V, and R filters). The data analyzed here reveal an asymmetric light curve (steep rise to maximum, followed by a slow decline to minimum), the overall structure of which exhibits pronounced evolution including a decrease in magnitude from year to year, at the rate of ~0.15 mag/yr.

We model these data with an irradiated secondary and an accretion disk with a hot spot using the eclipsing binary modeling program Nightfall. We find that we can model reasonably well each season of observation by changing very few parameters. The longitude of the hot spot on the disk and the brightness of the irradiated spot on the companion are largely responsible for the majority of the observed changes in the light curve shape and amplitude until 2009.