"Cepheids are the most useful stars in the sky.

"
L. Campbell and L. Jacchia (1941),
in The Story of Variable Stars

References:
-Lecture Notes by Conny Aerts (overview)
-Smith, H.A.: RR Lyrae Stars, Cambridge University Press, 1995
-www.spektrumverlag.de/sixcms/media.php/767/Muehlbauer-Cepheiden.pdf
-www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/distance.htm (The ABC's of Distances)
-www.institute-of-brilliant-failures.com/index.htm (The Cepheid Distance Scale)
-http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703724 (M.Catelan: Evolution of low-mass stars)
 Pulsations in evolved stars
Start of 2.3 Msun < M < 3 Msun
horizontal branch
core helium 3 Msun < M < 5 Msun
small loops
burning M > 5 Msun
large loops
Cepheids

core shell core shell

hydrogen hydrogen helium helium
burning burning burning burning

slow evolution fast evolution slow evolution

main sequence crossing the classical instability zones

 Crossing the
instability zones
(Turner 1998):
• 1 x during shell
hydrogen burning Data taken from Bersier et al.
(1991) and from ESA (1997).
• 2 x during core helium
burning

• 2 x during shell helium

burning
δ Cephei stars
Classical cepheids: Pop. I

M = 5…20 Msun
L up to 30,000 Lsun

Very regular changes of

luminosity, temperature
and spectral type

P = 1…135 d, ∆M = 0.1…2 mag

Spec. type F6 (max)…K2 (min)

LC III (min) … LC Ib for P <25 d

... LC Ia for P >25 d
 The prototype: δ Cephei
• LC Ib
• Visual binary (41“ separation)
• Variability detected by
John Goodricke in 1784
• P = 5.37 d,
• ∆R = 2.7 Mill. km, mV = 3.61…4.64,
spectral type F5…G2

• Other well-known cepheids are

η Aql, ζ Gem, Polaris, β Dor
 Light curves
Shark fin-like shaped

P = 1…135 d, ∆M = 0.1…2 mag

Spec. type F6 (max)…K2 (min)

∆M = 0.1…2 mag

P = 1…135 d
 Typical effects 1: The stillstand and the phase lag

The stillstand occurs

whenever a strong shock
wave propagates in the
atmosphere of the star in
such a way that the down-
fall of matter after maxi-
mum radius is stopped by
rising gas due to the next
shock.

The phase lag between

the photometric and RV
curves is of about a tenth
of the period.

The radial velocity and Hipparcos light curve of XCyg folded according to the radial
fundamental mode period of 16.38538 d (Bersier et al. 1991 and ESA 1997).
 Typical effects 2: The Hertzsprung progression

Hertzsprung 1926, Payne-Gaposchkin

1954: The bump first appears on the
descending branch of the light curve
of Cepheids with P = 6-7 d, travels up
this curve to reach its maximum for
P= 10-11 d. For longer periods, it
moves down in the ascending branch
and disappears for P > 20 d.

Bono et al. (2000): Detailed study and

modeling. Right: 6.55 Msun, 3.55 Lsun
model for different P and Teff.
The Hertzsprung bump P2/P0

• The echo mechanism (Whitney 1956,

Christy 1968): Two radial pressure waves
(Christy’s waves) moving in opposite
directions are generated during
compression phases in the HeII ionization
region. The pulse running downward
reflects on the stellar core and reaches the
surface at the next period during which the
bump appears.

• The resonance mechanism (Simon &

Schmidt 1976): The bump results from a
resonance between the fundamental mode
and the second overtone that is possible for
a period ratio P2/P0 close to 1/2.

• Gastine & Dintrans (2008): Study of the κ-

mechanism in a purely radiative layer

Numerical simulations are in favor of the
P2/P0 resonance mechanism.
 Double mode or beat Cepheids
• Fundamentral mode
+ first overtone (double mode HADS)

or
• First + second
overtone (only two
in our galaxy)

• Masses from evo-

lutionary models
have been comple-
tely wrong
• Solution: Increase of
opacity in the logT =
5.2…5.9 range
Petersen diagram: crosses = observed, continous based on Cox
& Tabor (1976), dashed on OPAL (1992) opacities.
Fourier decomposition of Cepheid light curves
Simon & Lee 1981: m = A0 + [Ak cos(kω (t-t0) + φk))]

φ21 = φ2 - 2φ1 R21 = A2 /A1

Discontinuity
at 10 d due to
2:1 resonance
between
fundamental
mode and
second
overtone
(Buchler et al.
1990)
 Short period Cepheids

• P < 7 d, low amplitudes

P1

• sinusoidal light curves

s-Cepheids

• Pulsate in the first radial overtone

Overtone Cepheids RV
P0
Fourier decomposition of s-Cepheid light curves

Antonello & Poretti

(1986): Discontinuity at
3.2 d due to a 2:1
resonance for 2ω1- ω4

Kienzle et al. (1999):

RVs
no discontinuity
at 3.2 d but 2ω1- ω4
resonance at 4.6 d, in
classical Cepheids much better agreement
s-Cepheids with HD models

nature of the 3.2 d
discontinuity unsolved
 Driving mechanism

• Arthur Stanley Eddington 1917: κ-mechanism

• S. A. Zhevakin 1953: HeII ionisation zone.

Doubly-ionized He is more opaque than singly-
ionized He. The more helium is heated, the
more ionized it becomes.
• At the dimmest part of a Cepheid’s cycle, the ionized gas in
the outer is opaque, and so is heated by the star's radiation,
and due to the increased temperature, begins to expand.
• As it expands, it cools, and so becomes less ionized and
therefore more transparent, allowing the radiation to escape.
Then the expansion stops, and reverses due to the star's
gravitational attraction. The process then repeats.
 Cepheids as standard candles

"Cepheids are the most useful stars in the sky."

L. Campbell and L. Jacchia (1941),
in The Story of Variable Stars

“The importance of Cepheids is not their

asteroseismic potential, except perhaps for
the double- and triple-mode pulsators, but
their fundamental power for distance
determinations” (Conny Aerts).
The galactic distance scale
Photometric:
m-M = -5+5 log(d), d in pc

Visual binaries + Keplerian motion:

e.g. speckle interferometry + spectroscopy

Trigonometric parallaxe: 1 pc = 1 AU/tan(1“)

• F.W. Bessel 1838: 61 Cyg
0.3“ = 3.3 pc
• Hipparcos: 180,000 stars, ∆d = 1 mas
• Tycho: 1 Mill. Stars, ∆d = 20 mas
• smallest so far: radio pulsar PSR B1508+55
0.415 mas = 2.4 kpc
• Gaia: 1 Bill. Stars, 25 µas at 15 mag, 300 µas at 20 mag
 The extragalactic distance scale
δ Cep stars as standard candles
• Harlow Shapley 1915: initial constrains
on size and shape of the milky way,
placement of the sun
• Edwin Hubble 1924: First δ Cep in Andro-
meda + speed at which the galaxy
recedes from us
Hubble law
• today: up to some Mpc from earth
• up to 100 Mpc by HST (nearby galaxies)
Tully-Fisher relation (1977) for spirals:
L ~ vrot(max)β, β = 3.0(B)…4.2(H)
Cosmologic redshift:
d = z c/H, z = (λ-λ0)/λ0, H = 72 km/s/Mpc, vexp = Hd
 Henrietta Leavitt (1868-
(1868-1921)

• She volunteered at the Harvard College Observatory

in 1895. Seven years later she was appointed to the
staff (at a salary of 30 cents an hour) by Pickering. She
got little chance to do theoretical work, but did be-
come head of the photographic photometry depart-
ment. This group studied photo images of stars deter-
mine their magnitude.
• During her career, Leavitt discovered more than 2,400 variable stars, about half
of the known total in her day. Leavitt's work with variable stars led to her most
important contribution to the field: the cepheid variable period-luminosity
relationship. By intense observation of a certain class of variable star, the
cepheids, Leavitt discovered a direct correlation between the time it took a star
to go from bright to dim to how bright it actually was.
 The PLR of the Cepheids
Edward Pickering (1912), based on data by H. Leavitt obtained
from 25 cepheids in the SMC

Ejnar Hertzsprung (1913): The PLR can be calibrated

M = a + b log P
Cepheids = Distance indicators.
The Problem: What is the value of a?
 Why there is a PLR?
Approximations:
• Fundamental period P = R/cs
• Adiabatic sound speed cs2 ~ p/ρ
• Mean density ρ = M/(4/3 π R3)
• Mean pressure p ~ ρ 2R2
P ~ ρ-1/2
• Pulsation changes only R but not T
L ~ R2
P ~ L3/4
L ~ 10-2/5M
P ~ 10 –M/3
Feast & Catchpole (1997): P ~ 10 –M/2.78
 Last century development of PLR
• Hertzsprung (1913) based on Leavitts‘s data:
MV = -0.6 - 2.1 log P
dSMC = 3,000 ly (actually 170,000 ly)

• Shapley (1918) based on SMC and globular clusters:

Division into „cluster cepheids“ (RR Lyr) and Cepheids,
correction of Hertzsprung‘s calibration, but inclusion of W Vir **

• Hubble (1925): „NGC 6822 as an isolated system of stars of the same type as
the Magellanic Clouds” (dnow = 520 kpc)
• Hubble (1926), 100-inch Mount Wilson Telescope, outer regions of M33&31:
“A spiral nebula as a stellar system, Messier 33”
dM33 = 263 kpc

• Baade (1944), 100-inch Mount Wilson Telescope, globular clusters of M31:

Division into Pop. I and II cepheids, correction of the PLR for classical cepheids
Reducing the scatter in the PLR
 The period
period--luminosity-
luminosity-color relation
Sandage (1958), see δ Sct stars for a derivation:
log(Q) = log(P) + 0.5log(M/Msun) + 0.3Mbol /Mbol,sun + 3log(T/Tsun)

Now substitute, in dependence on spectral type,

M/Msun by the mass-luminosity relation
Uncer-
Mbol/Mbol,sun by the bolometric correction (Eggen 1956)
tainties
T/Tsun by the color-Teff relation (Johnson & Morgan 1953)

to get log P – 1.051(B-V) + 0.239 M = log Q + 0.588

The PLCR
of the
Cepheids

Kraft (1961): Colour excess (reddening)

for LMC & SMC Cepheids,
Comparison with colours of
galactic Cepheids
Fernie (1967): Avoid the uncertainties in mass-luminosity calibration by
using the Baade-Wesselink method to determine an empirical period-
radius relation and start with
Mbol = Mbol,sun – 5 logR/Rsun – 10 log Teff/Teff,sun

A PLCR reduces the scatter of an empi-

rical PLR. But correcting the magnitu-
des in the PLR for reddening does it as
well!
 Still valid within a few mmag:
mmag:
• Sandage & Tammann (1968): Statistical approach using more than 100
Cepheids from throughout the local group of galaxies. Zero point calibra-
tion at Cepheids in open clusters .

P<50 d
linear
 The distance scale

• The precision of distance

measurements based on the
PLR depends primarily on the
precision with which the
distance of some Cepheid is
known.
• Pierre Kervella (2008)
estimated with a precision
within 1.4% the distance to the
Cepheid RS Puppis, using light
echos from a nebula in which it
is embedded
A modern PLR for
classical cepheids:

Michael Feast & Robin

Catchpole (1997) using
trigonometric parallaxes
determined by the
Hipparcos satellite

MV = -1.43 - 2.81 log P

dSMC = 170,000 ly
M = a + b log P
 The period
period--luminosity relation
• Michael Feast & Robin Catchpole 1997 using trigonometric
parallaxes determined by the Hipparcos satellite:

MV = -2.81 logP – (1.43+-0.1)

• The following relations can be used to calculate the distance d

and reddenings E(B − V) to classical Cepheids (J is on the
2MASS photometric system) :

5 logd = V + 3.43 logP – 2.58(V–I) + 7.50

5 logd = V + 4.42 logP – 3.43(B–V)+ 7.15
E(B–V) = - 0.27 logP + 0.41(V–J) – 0.26
 The period
period--age relationship

• The age of a Cepheid can be reliably estimated from

the period-age relationship, whose existence is a
consequence of the period-luminosity and mass-
luminosity relationships. The up-to-date form of the
period-age relationship is (Bono et al. 2005):

log t = (-0.67+- 0.01) log P + (8.31+-0.08)

 Population I and II Cepheids
Walter Baade 1942: There are two
types of Cepheids in M31

DCEP = classical Cepheids

• Comparatively young objects
belonging to the flat component
of the galaxy
• Present in open clusters

CW = W Virginis variables
• Belong to the old disk population
or galactical spherical component
• Present in old globular clusters
and under high galactic latidudes
 Population II (type II) Cepheids
• After central helium burning, stars of Population II with masses higher
than 0.5M⊙ evolve from the horizontal branch towards the AGB and
cross the instability strip.
• Driving mechanism: κ-mechanism in partial ionization zones of HeII-
HeIII and of HI-HII.
P = 1…5 d BL Herculis stars
• Type II Cepheids P = 10…20 d W Virginis stars
P > 20 d RV Tauri stars

There occurs a period gap between 5 and 10 d due to the different

evolutionary status of the stars. RV Tauri stars appear to be a direct
extension of the Type II Cepheids to longer periods (Pollard & Evans
1999, based on the MACHO data in LMC)
 W Virginis variables (Type II Cepheids)
Cepheids)

Less luminous by 1.5-2 mag

than Type I

P = 10…20(30) d

∆M = 0.3…1.2 mag

Spectra
low metallicity

 RR Lyrae stars

• Bailey 1895: First RR Lyr stars in globular clusters

• Spherical spatial distribution, high proper motion in all

directions
extreme Population II stars, Z = 0.0001 to 0.01

• Can be used to determine the distance and age of clusters

Standard candles of galactic evolution

Classical radial pulsators RR Lyrae stars
like the Cepheids

Old Population II giant stars

= Cluster Cepheids

Short periods of 1.5 hr…1 d

∆V = 0.3…2.0 mag
Spectral type A7 to F5

M = 0.6…0.8 Msun

Distance indicators to
globular clusters
within 200 kpc
More than 200 RR Lyrae stars in M3
shell H+He burning He flash
core He burning shell H burning
Turn-off point

ZAMS

Why there is such a small range in RR Lyr masses?

masses?

Catelan (2007)
 Why such a small range in masses?
masses?
• M = 0.5..2.2 Msun
He burning starts in a degenerated core

He flash
horizontal branch
• Thickness of the H-envelope determines Teff at the horizontal
branch (thin = blue, thick = red). Blue horizontal branch stars
have thin envelopes, weak H-burning shells and develop a
radiative outer zone (Prialnik 2000).
• The H-envelope needs to have a particular mass to result in
oscillations driven by the heat mechanism, which requires a
radiative zone.
• Stars with masses between ≃ 0.6 and 0.8 M⊙ have the
appropriate regions of H and He ionization zones to become
RR Lyrae stars (de Santis & Casisi 1999)
• The precise mass limits depend on the metallicity and on the
mass lost on the giant branch.
 Classification of RR Lyr stars
Historical : three Bailey classes: RRa, RRb, and RRc stars based
upon the amplitude and skewness of the light curve and on
the oscillation period.

Nowadays:
• RRab: radial fundamental mode, asymmetric light curves,
P ~ 12 hr
• RRc: radial first overtone, sinusoidal light curves, P ~ 7 hr
• RRd (since the mid 80th): double-mode pulsators (fundamen-
tal+first overtone), P = 0.3…0.5 d, P1 /P0 ~ 0.74, amplitudes
change on short time scales, found in globular clusters and in
the galactic plane
 Light curves
RRab star (Soszynski et al. 2003)

RRc star (Soszynski et al. 2003)

RRd star (Kovacz 2000)

Double-mode RRd star
(Kovacz 2000)

Fundamental + first
overtone mode

First overtone mode,

cleaned for the
fundamental mode
 The Oosterhoff
Oosterhoff--period
period--dichotomy

• Oosterhoff (1944): Some clusters have mainly RRab stars,

while others have an equal contribution in RRab and RRc
stars.
• The former are called Oosterhoff I type clusters and the
latter Oosterhoff II.
• The average oscillation period of the RR Lyrae stars in
Oosterhoff I clusters is 0.1 d shorter than for those in the
Oosterhoff II clusters.
 The Oosterhoff
Oosterhoff--period
period--dichotomy
A. Sandage (1993): The Oosterhoff division is caused by
• an increase in the pulsation period due to increased luminosity
with decreased metallicity, and
• the change in the globular cluster HB morphology through the
instability strip as the metallicity is decreased.
• The HB generally moves out of the instability strip far to the
blue for the metallicity interval between [Fe/H] of − 1.7 and
− 1.9, and then back into the strip for even lower metallicities.
• This causes the apparent separation into two period groups and
a decreased number density, appearing usually as a gap in the
period distributions in particular samples near a metallicity of
[Fe/H] = − 1.8
 The Oosterhoff
Oosterhoff--period
period--dichotomy
Lee & Carney (1999): M2 (Oosterhoff II) and M3 (Oosterhoff I)
have the same metallicities

• The Oosterhoff II clusters were formed very early in the proto-
Galaxy while the Oosterhoff I clusters were formed at
different locations and at a later time, and were probably
merger events.
• The period distributions of an unbiased sample of field RRab
variables indicate that they may belong to different
populations, with peak periods of 0.65 and 0.55 days,
respectively.
 The Blazhko effect – observational facts

• 25% of the RR Lyrae stars of all classes show amplitude modula-

tion in the light curve on a timescale ~100 times longer than the
oscillation period. It was observed for the first time by Blazhko
(1907) for the star EWDra and is named after its discoverer.
• RR Lyrae itself is a Blazhko star with a Blazhko period of 40.8 d.
For some of the Blazhko stars a third, much longer modulation
period exists, e.g., 7 years for RWDra and 4 years for RR Lyr.
• Over the Blazhko cycle the maximum brightness changes consi-
derably, while there is hardly any change in minimum.
• The start of a new long modulation cycle is accompanied with a
phase jump of several days in the light curve.
The Blazhko effect – typical light curve

Kurtz et al. (2000)

 The Blazhko effect – two models
• A) Resonant mode interaction model. Excitation of a
nonradial oscillation mode of low degree, besides the main
radial mode, through non-linear resonant mode coupling. The
Blazhko period is interpreted as the beat period between the
radial fundamental and the nonradial mode (e.g., Van Hoolst
et al. 1995; Dziembowski & Cassisi 1999).

• B) Oblique pulsator model. A magnetic field influences the

oscillations (similar to the oblique pulsator model for the roAp
stars). In this case the Blazhko period must be interpreted as
the rotation period of the star (e.g., Shibahashi & Takata
1995).
 The Blazhko effect –
a controverse debate
• None of the two models can explain
the variety of Blazhko light curve observed
characteristics discovered from the
MACHO database (Kurtz 2000)
• No unambigous magnetic field
detection in RR Lyr so far.
• Moskalik & Poretti (2003) rejected = fundamental mode
the oblique magnetic pulsator model
on the basis of the properties of
Blazhko stars discovered from the + nonradial mode
OGLE project (secondary periodicities
very close to the primary pulsation
frequency in 38 stars detected, giving + nonradial mode
rise to the Blazhko effect).
I-light curve of BW6 V20