The massive binary CPD-41 degrees 7742 - II. Optical light curve and X-ray observations

In the first paper of this series, we presented a detailed high-resolution spectroscopic study of CPD - 41 degrees 7742, deriving for the first time an orbital solution for both components of the system. In this second paper, we focus on the analysis of the optical light curve and on recent XMM-Newton X-ray observations. In the optical, the system presents two eclipses, yielding an inclination i similar to 77 degrees. Combining the constraints from the photometry with the results of our previous work, we derive the absolute parameters of the system. We confirm that the two components of CPD- 41 degrees 7742 are main sequence stars (O9 V+ B1 - 1.5 V) with masses (M-1 similar to 18 M-. and M-2 similar to 10 M-.) and respective radii (R-1 similar to 7.5 R-. and R-2 similar to 5.4 R-.) close to the typical values expected for such stars. We also report an unprecedented set of X-ray observations that almost uniformly cover the 2.44-day orbital cycle. The X-ray emission from CPD-41 degrees 7742 is well described by a two-temperature thermal plasma model with energies close to 0.6 and 1.0 keV, thus slightly harder than typical early-type emission. The X-ray light curve shows clear signs of variability. The emission level is higher when the primary is in front of the secondary. During the high emission state, the system shows a drop of its X-ray emission that almost exactly matches the optical eclipse. We interpret the main features of the X-ray light curve as the signature of a wind-photosphere interaction, in which the overwhelming primary O9 star wind crashes into the secondary surface. Alternatively the light curve could result from a wind-wind interaction zone located near the secondary star surface. As a support to our interpretation, we provide a phenomenological geometric model that qualitatively reproduces the observed modulations of the X-ray emission.