Known Galactic field Blazhko stars

A list of known Galactic field stars exhibiting Blazhko effect containing 242 stars is presented. All the entries including their designations, positions, pulsation, and Blazhko periods were collected from the available literature. The actual values of parameters are given.Comment: 8 pages, accepted for publication in A&A, corrected typo

Blazhko effect in the Galactic bulge fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars - I. Incidence rate and differences between modulated and non-modulated stars

We present the first paper of a series focused on the Blazhko effect in RR Lyrae type stars pulsating in the fundamental mode that are located in the Galactic bulge. A comprehensive overview of the incidence rate and light-curve characteristics of the Blazhko stars is given. We analysed 8282 stars having the best quality data in the OGLE-IV survey, and found that at least 40.3 per cent of the stars show modulation of their light curves. The number of Blazhko stars we identified is 3341, which is the largest sample ever studied, implying that these are the most relevant statistical results currently available. Using combined data sets with OGLE-III observations, we found that 50 per cent of the stars that show unresolved peaks close to the main component in OGLE-IV are actually Blazhko stars with extremely long periods. Blazhko stars with modulation occur preferentially among RR Lyrae stars with shorter pulsation periods in the Galactic bulge. Fourier amplitude and phase coefficients based on the mean light curves appear to be substantially lower for Blazhko stars than for stars with an unmodulated light curve on average. We derived new relations for the compatibility parameter Dm in the I passband and relations that allow for differentiating modulated and non-modulated stars easily based on R31, ϕ21 and ϕ31. Photometric metallicities, intrinsic colours and absolute magnitudes computed using empirical relations are the same for Blazhko and non-modulated stars in the Galactic bulge, suggesting there is no correlation between the occurrence of the Blazhko effect and these parameters

KIC 2831097. A short orbital-period candidate RR Lyrae binary

KIC 2831097 was discovered to be a first-overtone RR Lyrae pulsator based on 4-year Kepler photometry (Sódor et al. 2017, MNRAS, 465, L1). The data show strong, 0.1 d amplitude systematic phase variations that can be explained by light travel-time effect caused by an about 2-year period orbital motion in a binary system, superimposed on a linear pulsation-period decrease. To verify the binary hypothesis, several well-timed radial-velocity observations will be sufficient

KIC 2831097 - A 2-year orbital-period RR Lyrae binary candidate

We report the discovery of a new Kepler first-overtone RR Lyrae pulsator, KIC 2831097. The pulsation shows large, 0.1 d amplitude, systematic phase variations that can be interpreted as light travel-time effect caused by orbital motion in a binary system, superimposed on a linear pulsation-period decrease. The assumed eccentric (e=0.47) orbit with the period of approximately 2 yr is the shortest among the non-eclipsing RR Lyrae binary candidates. The binary model gives a lowest estimate for the mass of the companion of 8.4 M_Sun, that places it among black hole candidates. Beside the first-overtone pulsation, numerous additional non-radial pulsation frequencies were also identified. We detected an ~47-d Blazhko-like irregular light-curve modulation