BEER analysis of Kepler and CoRoT light curves: III. Spectroscopic confirmation of seventy new beaming binaries discovered in CoRoT light curves

Context. The BEER algorithm searches stellar light curves for the BEaming, Ellipsoidal, and Reflection photometric modulations that are caused by a short-period companion. These three effects are typically of very low amplitude and can mainly be detected in light curves from space-based photometers. Unlike eclipsing binaries, these effects are not limited to edge-on inclinations. Aims. Applying the algorithm to wide-field photometric surveys such as CoRoT and Kepler offers an opportunity to better understand the statistical properties of short-period binaries. It also widens the window for detecting intrinsically rare systems, such as short-period brown-dwarf and massive-planetary companions to main-sequence stars. Methods. Applying the search to the first five long-run center CoRoT fields, we identified 481 non-eclipsing candidates with periodic flux amplitudes of 0.5-87 mmag. Optimizing the Anglo-Australian-Telescope pointing coordinates and the AAOmega fiber-allocations with dedicated softwares, we acquired six spectra for 231 candidates and seven spectra for another 50 candidates in a seven-night campaign. Analysis of the red-arm AAOmega spectra, which covered the range of 8342-8842 Å, yielded a radial-velocity precision of ∼1 km s^-1. Spectra containing lines of more than one star were analyzed with the two-dimensional correlation algorithm TODCOR. Results. The measured radial velocities confirmed the binarity of seventy of the BEER candidates - 45 single-line binaries, 18 double-line binaries, and 7 diluted binaries. We show that red giants introduce a major source of false candidates and demonstrate a way to improve BEER's performance in extracting higher fidelity samples from future searches of CoRoT light curves. The periods of the confirmed binaries span a range of 0.3-10 days and show a rise in the number of binaries per ΔlogP toward longer periods. The estimated mass ratios of the double-line binaries and the mass ratios assigned to the single-line binaries, assuming an isotropic inclination distribution, span a range of 0.03-1. On the low-mass end, we have detected two brown-dwarf candidates on a ∼1 day period orbit. Conclusions. This is the first time non-eclipsing beaming binaries are detected in CoRoT data, and we estimate that ∼300 such binaries can be detected in the CoRoT long-run light curves.