Letter to the Editor Effects of dust on light-curves of ϵ
Aurigae-type stars Astronomical Institute, Slovak Academy of
Sciences, 05960 Tatranska Lomnica, Slovak Republic Received: 23
May 2011 Accepted: 15 July 2011 Context.ϵ Auriga is one of the
most mysterious objects in the sky. Previous modeling of its
light-curve assumed a dark, inclined, non-transparent or semi-
transparent dusty disk with a central hole. The hole was
necessary to explain the light-curve with a sharp mid-eclipse
brightening. Aims. The aim of the present paper is to study the
effects of dust on the light-curves of eclipsing binary stars
and to develop an alternative physical model for ϵ Aur-type
objects that is based on the optical properties of dust grains.
Methods. The code Shellspec was modified to calculate the light-
curves and spectra of these objects. The code solves the
radiative transfer along the line of sight in interacting
binaries. Dust and angle-dependent Mie scattering were included
in the code for this purpose. Results. Our