Variations in the brightness and polarization of W Cep

The hypothesis that W Cep has an eclipsing variability is discussed on the basis of our photometric and polarimetric observations of it from 1983–2003. Here we attempt to use our observations of W Cep to construct an average light curve, after separating out the slow variation, with the elements JD_min=2448105^d+2090^d. A strong variability is found from period to period at phases of 0.1–0.3 that may be caused by a variable flow of matter between the components. __________ Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 187–196 (May 2006).