Asteroid sizes can be directly measured by observing occultations of stars by
asteroids. When there are enough observations across the path of the shadow,
the asteroid's projected silhouette can be reconstructed. Asteroid shape models
derived from photometry by the lightcurve inversion method enable us to predict
the orientation of an asteroid for the time of occultation. By scaling the
shape model to fit the occultation chords, we can determine the asteroid size
with a relative accuracy of typically ~ 10%. We combine shape and spin state
models of 44 asteroids (14 of them are new or updated models) with the
available occultation data to derive asteroid effective diameters. In many
cases, occultations allow us to reject one of two possible pole solutions that
were derived from photometry. We show that by combining results obtained from
lightcurve inversion with occultation timings, we can obtain unique physical
models of asteroids.Comment: 33 pages, 45 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in Icaru