Gamma Persei: a challenge for stellar evolution models

Abstract

From the published visual and spectroscopic observations together with some unpublished radial velocities kindly provided by R.F. Griffin, we determine an orbit which accurately reproduces the time of the primary eclipse observed by \cite*{Griffin-1994} and also recompute Hipparcos astrometric parameters. The orbital parallax is slightly off with respect to Hipparcos whereas the agreement of the masses with the spectral types is better than with previous estimates. These masses being hypothesis-free, they can be used as milestones for stellar evolution models.