The Role of Opacities in Stellar Pulsation

We examine the role of opacities in stellar pulsation with reference to Cepheids and RR Lyraes, and examine the effect of augmented opacities on the theoretical pulsation light curves in key temperature ranges. The temperature ranges are provided by recent experimental and theoretical work that have suggested that the iron opacities have been considerably underestimated. For Cepheids, we find that the augmented opacities have noticeable effects in certain period ranges (around $\log P \approx 1$) even though there is a degeneracy with mixing length. We also find significant effects in theoretical models of B-star pulsators.Comment: 6 pages, 3 Figures, Proceeding for the "Workshop on Astrophysical Opacities

Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. II. The Wesenheit relations and their application to the Distance scale

We present new near-infrared Cepheid Period-Wesenheit relations in the LMC using time-series observations from the Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. We also derive optical$+$near-infrared P-W relations using $V$ and $I$~magnitudes from OGLE-III. We employ our new $JHK_s$ data to determine an independent distance to the LMC of $\mu_{\rm LMC} = 18.47\pm0.07 {\textit{(statistical)}}$~mag, using an absolute calibration of the Galactic relations based on several distance determination methods and accounting for the intrinsic scatter of each technique. We also derive new near-infrared Period-Luminosity and Wesenheit relations for Cepheids in M31 using observations from the PHAT survey. We use the absolute calibrations of the Galactic and LMC $W_{J,H}$ relations to determine the distance modulus of M31, $\mu_{\rm M31} = 24.46\pm0.20$~mag. We apply a simultaneous fit to Cepheids in several Local Group galaxies covering a range of metallicities ($7.7<12+\log[O/H]<8.6$~dex) to determine a global slope of -$3.244\pm0.016$~mag/dex for the $W_{J,K_s}$ relation and obtain robust distance estimates. Our distances are in good agreement with recent TRGB based distance estimates and we do not find any evidence for a metallicity dependence in the near-infrared P-W relations.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Classical Cepheid Pulsation Models: IX. New Input Physics

We constructed several sequences of classical Cepheid envelope models at solar chemical composition ($Y=0.28, Z=0.02$) to investigate the dependence of the pulsation properties predicted by linear and nonlinear hydrodynamical models on input physics. To study the dependence on the equation of state (EOS) we performed several numerical experiments by using the simplified analytical EOS originally developed by Stellingwerf and the recent analytical EOS developed by Irwin. Current findings suggest that the pulsation amplitudes as well as the topology of the instability strip marginally depend on the adopted EOS. We also investigated the dependence of observables predicted by theoretical models on the mass-luminosity (ML) relation and on the spatial resolution across the Hydrogen and the Helium partial ionization regions. We found that nonlinear models are marginally affected by these physical and numerical assumptions. In particular, the difference between new and old models in the location as well as in the temperature width of the instability strip is on average smaller than 200 K. However, the spatial resolution somehow affects the pulsation properties. The new fine models predict a period at the center of the Hertzsprung Progression ($P_{HP}=9.65$$-$9.84 days) that reasonably agree with empirical data based on light curves ($P_{HP}=10.0\pm 0.5$ days; \citealt{mbm92}) and on radial velocity curves ($P_{HP}=9.95\pm 0.05$ days; \citealt{mall00}), and improve previous predictions by Bono, Castellani, and Marconi (2000, hereinafter BCM00).Comment: 35 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Investigations of the Non-Linear LMC Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation with Testimator and Schwarz Information Criterion Methods

In this paper, we investigate the linearity versus non-linearity of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheid period-luminosity (P-L) relation using two statistical approaches not previously applied to this problem: the testimator method and the Schwarz Information Criterion (SIC). The testimator method is extended to multiple stages for the first time, shown to be unbiased and the variance of the estimated slope can be proved to be smaller than the standard slope estimated from linear regression theory. The Schwarz Information Criterion (also known as the Bayesian Information Criterion) is more conservative than the Akaike Information Criterion and tends to choose lower order models. By using simulated data sets, we verify that these statistical techniques can be used to detect intrinsically linear and/or non-linear P-L relations. These methods are then applied to independent LMC Cepheid data sets from the OGLE project and the MACHO project, respectively. Our results imply that there is a change of slope in longer period ranges for all of the data sets. This strongly supports previous results, obtained from independent statistical tests, that the observed LMC P-L relation is non-linear with a break period at/around 10 days.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures and 3 tables, PASP accepte

Period-Luminosity Relations Derived from the OGLE-III Fundamental Mode Cepheids

In this Paper, we have derived Cepheid period-luminosity (P-L) relations for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) fundamental mode Cepheids, based on the data released from OGLE-III. We have applied an extinction map to correct for the extinction of these Cepheids. In addition to the VIW band P-L relations, we also include JHK and four Spitzer IRAC band P-L relations, derived by matching the OGLE-III Cepheids to the 2MASS and SAGE datasets, respectively. We also test the non-linearity of the Cepheid P-L relations based on extinction-corrected data. Our results (again) show that the LMC P-L relations are non-linear in VIJH bands and linear in KW and the four IRAC bands, respectively.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures and 3 tables, ApJ accepte

Determination of Cepheid parameters by light-curve template-fitting

We describe techniques to characterise the light-curves of regular variable stars by applying principal component analysis (PCA) to a training set of high quality data, and to fit the resulting light-curve templates to sparse and noisy photometry to obtain parameters such as periods, mean magnitudes etc. The PCA approach allows us to efficiently represent the multi-band light-curve shapes of each variable, and hence quantitatively describe the average behaviour of the sample as a smoothly varying function of period, and also the range of variation around this average. In this paper we focus particularly on the utility of such methods for analysing HST Cepheid photometry, and present simulations which illustrate the advantages of our PCA template-fitting approach. These are: accurate parameter determination, including light-curve shape information; simultaneous fitting to multiple passbands; quantitative error analysis; objective rejection of variables with non Cepheid-like light-curves or those with potential period aliases. We also use PCA to confirm that Cepheid light-curve shapes are systematically different (at the same period) between the Milky Way (MW) and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC, SMC), and consider whether light-curve shape might therefore be used to estimate the mean metallicities of Cepheid samples, thus allowing metallicity corrections to be applied to derived distance estimates.Comment: MNRAS in press: revised in light of referees comment

A multi-wavelength analysis of BL Her stars: Models versus Observations

We present new theoretical period--luminosity (PL) and period--radius (PR) relations at multiple wavelengths (Johnson--Cousins--Glass and {\sl Gaia} passbands) for a fine grid of BL~Herculis models computed using {\sc mesa-rsp}. The non-linear models were computed for periods typical of BL~Her stars, i.e. $1\leq P ({\rm days}) \leq4$, covering a wide range of input parameters: metallicity ($-$2.0 dex $\leq$ [Fe/H] $\leq$ 0.0 dex), stellar mass (0.5--0.8 M$_{\odot}$), luminosity (50--300 L$_{\odot}$) and effective temperature (full extent of the instability strip; in steps of 50K). We investigate the impact of four sets of convection parameters on multi-wavelength properties. Most empirical relations match well with theoretical relations from the BL~Her models computed using the four sets of convection parameters. No significant metallicity effects are seen in the PR relations. Another important result from our grid of BL~Her models is that it supports combining PL relations of RR Lyrae and Type~II Cepheids together as an alternative to classical Cepheids for the extragalactic distance scale calibration.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings for IAUS376 'At the cross-roads of astrophysics and cosmology: Period-luminosity relations in the 2020s', Budapest, April 202

Microlensing Candidates in M87 and the Virgo Cluster with the Hubble Space Telescope

The position of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 at the center of the Virgo Cluster means that the inferred column density of dark matter associated with both the cluster halo and the galaxy halo is quite large. This system is thus an important laboratory for studying massive dark objects in elliptical galaxies and galaxy clusters by gravitational microlensing, strongly complementing the studies of spiral galaxy halos performed in the Local Group. We have performed a microlensing survey of M87 with the WFPC2 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Over a period of thirty days, with images taken once daily, we discover seven variable sources. Four are variable stars of some sort, two are consistent with classical novae, and one exhibits an excellent microlensing lightcurve, though with a very blue color implying the somewhat disfavored possibility of a horizontal branch source being lensed. Based on sensitivity calculations from artificial stars and from artificial lightcurves, we estimate the expected microlensing rate. We find that the detection of one event is consistent with a dark halo with a 20% contribution of microlensing objects for both M87 and the Virgo Cluster, similar to the value found from observations in the Local Group. Further work is required to test the hypothesized microlensing component to the cluster.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, revised version submitted to Ap