Estimation of the Time Scale of Merging of the Components of Contact Binaries of the W UMa Type

Time scales of the transition from contact binary systems of the W UMa type to single stars of the blue straggler type are estimated. A model of one-way mass transfer from the primary component to the companion inside a common envelope (Eggen et al.) and a model of a contact binary lying on the zero-age main sequence with a companion that is losing mass (F. van't Veer) are used to calculate these scales. The merging times of components were calculated for 304 contact systems of the W UMa type from the Catalog of Approximate Photometric and Absolute Elements of Eclipsing Variable Stars on a scale of loss of mass and orbital angular momentum due to magnetic braking, under the assumption of synchronization of the axial rotation and orbital revolution. On the basis of the resulting statistics, the characteristic merging scales are 0.4-0.6 and 0.5-0.7 Gyr, respectively, for the above two models. The results of a comparison with the work of other authors are discussed.