Simultaneous least-squares adjustment of visual and spectroscopic observations of binary stars

Double-lined spectroscopic visual binaries allow the hypothesis-free estimation of their individual masses and of their distances. Instead of two independent determinations of some orbital parameters, we propose a simultaneous adjustment of visual and spectroscopic observations. This paper presents the different steps of such a simultaneous adjustment: (a) to transform the problem into a quest for the global minimum of a nonlinear function; (b) to obtain that minimum using simulated annealing and the Broyden-Fletcher-Goldstrab-Shanno local search method.