English

A Panoply of Cepheid Light Curve Templates

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

We have generated accurate V and I template light curves using a combination of Fourier decomposition and principal component analysis for a large sample of Cepheid light curves. Unlike previous studies, we include short period Cepheids and stars pulsating in the first overtone mode in our analysis. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations show that our templates can be used to precisely measure Cepheid magnitudes and periods, even in cases where there are few observational epochs. These templates are ideal for characterizing serendipitously discovered Cepheids and can be used in conjunction with surveys such as Pan-Starrs and LSST where the observational sampling may not be optimized for Cepheids.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0903.4186,
  title  = {A Panoply of Cepheid Light Curve Templates},
  author = {Peter Yoachim and Les P. McCommas and Julianne J. Dalcanton and Benjamin F. Williams},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0903.4186},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

12 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ fixed embarrassing typos