\journalname
Astronomy&AstrophysicsReview

Selection criteria

\label{selection}
The basic criteria for selecting binary systems for this review are, first, that the components can be expected to have evolved as if they were single, second, that their masses and radii can both be trusted to be accurate to better than 3%. We have endeavoured to make an exhaustive search of the literature for such systems.
The first requirement excludes all systems with past or ongoing mass exchange, and systems exhibiting an activity level far exceeding that seen in single stars, such as cataclysmic, Algol, or RS CVn-type binaries. The second condition obliges us to perform an in-depth study of the pedigree of each eclipsing system, following the precepts outlined in Sect. \ref{analysis}.
The choice of the upper limit of permissible errors is a matter of judgement. The nominal limit in the compilation in A91 was 2% in both \(M\) and \(R\), but several systems did in fact have errors between 2% and 3%. We have adopted 3% as a hard cut-off for the error in both parameters for the systems included in Table \ref{tableMR}, recognising that an error of 3% may be too large for firm conclusions in, e.g., the most demanding tests of stellar evolution theory (see Sect. \ref{sysfit}). However, if needed, readers will be able to select subsamples with stricter limits from the data given here.
Due to the advances in long-baseline optical/near-IR interferometry, a sizeable number of visual binaries now have combined interferometric and spectroscopic orbits yielding individual masses with errors below 3%. The orbital parallaxes and resulting absolute magnitudes are also of high accuracy. However, the individual radii of these stars are not accurate enough to be included in Table \ref{tableMR}, whether determined from direct angular diameter measurements (as for Capella) or from the absolute magnitudes and effective temperatures, as the error of \(T_{\rm eff}\) is still too large.
Nevertheless, these systems contain a number of interesting objects with very well-determined masses, and prospects are good that progress in interferometry over the next few years may improve the accuracy of the radii to match that of the masses. We therefore list and briefly discuss these systems in Table \ref{tableMonly} and Sect. \ref{Mdata}.