Calibrating the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation with the VLTI

The VLTI is the ideal instrument for measuring the distances of nearby Cepheids with the Baade-Wesselink method, allowing an accurate recalibration of the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation. The high accuracy required by such measurement, however, can only be reached taking into account the effects of limb darkening, and its dependence on the Cepheid pulsations. We present here our new method to compute phase- and wavelength-dependent limb darkening profiles, based on hydrodynamic simulation of Classical Cepheid atmospheres.Comment: 3 pages, 2 postscript figures, uses eas.cls LaTeX class file, to appear in the proc. Eurowinter School "Observing with the VLTI", Feb 3-8 2002, Les Houches (France

Spitzer/IRAC Limits to Planetary Companions of Fomalhaut and epsilon Eridani

Fomalhaut and epsilon Eridani are two young, nearby stars that possess extended debris disks whose structures suggest the presence of perturbing planetary objects. With its high sensitivity and stable point spread function, Spitzer/IRAC is uniquely capable of detecting cool, Jupiter-like planetary companions whose peak emission is predicted to occur near 4.5 um. We report on deep IRAC imaging of these two stars, taken at 3.6 and 4.5 um using subarray mode and in all four channels in wider-field full array mode. Observations acquired at two different telescope roll angles allowed faint surrounding objects to be separated from the stellar diffraction pattern. No companion candidates were detected at the reported position of Fomalhaut b with 3 sigma model-dependent mass upper limits of 3 MJ (for an age of 200 Myr). Around epsilon Eridani we instead set a limit of 4 and <1 MJ (1 Gyr model age) at the inner and outer edge of the sub-millimeter debris ring, respectively. These results are consistent with non-detections in recent near-infrared imaging searches, and set the strongest limits to date on the presence of planets outside epsilon Eridani sub-millimeter ring.Comment: Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal. Request electronic-only plates to M. Marengo ([email protected]

Calibrating the projection factor for Galactic Cepheids

The projection factor (p), which converts the radial velocity to pulsational velocity, is an important parameter in the Baade-Wesselink (BW) type analysis and distance scale work. The p-factor is either adopted as a constant or linearly depending on the logarithmic of pulsating periods. The aim of this work is to calibrate the p-factor if a Cepheid has both the BW distance and an independent distance measurement, and examine the p-factor for delta Cephei -- the prototype of classical Cepheids. We calibrated the p-factor for several Galactic Cepheids that have both the latest BW distances and independent distances either from Hipparcos parallaxes or main-sequence fitting distances to Cepheid-hosted stellar clusters. Based on 25 Cepheids, the calibrated p-factor relation is consistent with latest p-factor relation in literature. The calibrated p-factor relation also indicates that this relation may not be linear and may exhibit an intrinsic scatter. We also examined the discrepancy of empirical p-factors for delta Cephei, and found that the reasons for this discrepancy include the disagreement of angular diameters, the treatment of radial velocity data, and the phase interval adopted during the fitting procedure. Finally, we investigated the impact of the input p-factor in two BW methodologies for delta Cephei, and found that different p-factors can be adopted in these BW methodologies and yet result in the same angular diameters.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures and 2 tables. A&A accepte

Cepheid limb darkening, angular diameter corrections, and projection factor from static spherical model stellar atmospheres

Context. One challenge for measuring the Hubble constant using Classical Cepheids is the calibration of the Leavitt Law or period-luminosity relationship. The Baade-Wesselink method for distance determination to Cepheids relies on the ratio of the measured radial velocity and pulsation velocity, the so-called projection factor and the ability to measure the stellar angular diameters. Aims. We use spherically-symmetric model stellar atmospheres to explore the dependence of the p-factor and angular diameter corrections as a function of pulsation period. Methods. Intensity profiles are computed from a grid of plane-parallel and spherically-symmetric model stellar atmospheres using the SAtlas code. Projection factors and angular diameter corrections are determined from these intensity profiles and compared to previous results. Results. Our predicted geometric period-projection factor relation including previously published state-of-the-art hydrodynamical predictions is not with recent observational constraints. We suggest a number of potential resolutions to this discrepancy. The model atmosphere geometry also affects predictions for angular diameter corrections used to interpret interferometric observations, suggesting corrections used in the past underestimated Cepheid angular diameters by 3 - 5%. Conclusions. While spherically-symmetric hydrostatic model atmospheres cannot resolve differences between projection factors from theory and observations, they do help constrain underlying physics that must be included, including chromospheres and mass loss. The models also predict more physically-based limb-darkening corrections for interferometric observations.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&