Evidence for Binarity and Possible Disk Obscuration in Kepler Observations of the Pulsating RV Tau Variable DF Cygni

The Kepler light curve of DF Cyg is unparalleled in precision and cadence for any RV Tau star to date spanning a baseline of $\sim$4 years and clearly displaying the signature pulsating behavior of alternating deep and shallow minima as well as the long-term trend indicative of an RVb-type variable. We measured DF Cyg's formal period (the time interval between two successive deep minima) to be $~49.84 \pm 0.02~$days. The trend in the arrival times emulates that of the long-term period. There appears to be precisely 16 deep+shallow minima cycles in one long-term cycle, suggesting a long-term cycle period of $\approx$ $795 \pm 5~$days. We argue that binarity may naturally explain the long-term periodicity in DF Cyg. The spectral energy distribution of DF Cyg features an infrared excess indicative of a disk possibly linked to a binary companion. From a recent Gaia parallax measurement for DF Cyg, we calculated that it has a distance of $990 \pm 372$pc and a physical radius of $R_\star = 10.3 \pm 3.8$ R$_\odot$. From kinematics and geometric arguments, we argue that the most likely interpretation for the decrease in flux from the long-period maximum to the long-period minimum, as well as the reduction of short-term pulsation amplitude, is caused by an occulting body such as a disk surrounding DF Cyg and its binary companion.