Related papers: The Cepheid mass discrepancy and pulsation-driven …
Because Cepheid variable stars have long been used as a cosmic benchmark, the accuracy of stellar evolution models for Cepheids have wide-reaching effects. Our goal is to provide a detailed multi-dimensional picture of hydrodynamic…
Cepheid masses are particularly necessary to help solving the mass discrepancy, while independent distance determinations provide crucial test of the period-luminosity relation and Gaia parallaxes. We used CHARA/MIRC to measure the…
Masses determined from classical Cepheids in binary systems are a primary test of both pulsation and evolutionary calculations. The first step is to determine the orbit from ground-based radial velocities. Complementary satellite data from…
Polaris the Cepheid has been observed for centuries, presenting surprises and changing our view of Cepheids and stellar astrophysics, in general. Specifically, understanding Polaris helps anchor the Cepheid Leavitt law, but the distance…
An analysis of the observed characteristics of the Galactic Cepheid variables is carried out in the framework of their period-luminosity relation being used as a standard candle for distance measurement. The variation of the observed number…
Updated evolutionary and pulsational model predictions are combined in order to interpret the properties of Galactic Classical Cepheids in the Gaia Data Release 2. In particular, the location of the instability strip boundaries and the…
We present the results of non-linear pulsation modeling of bump Cepheids in the LMC and SMC. By obtaining an optimal fit to the observed MACHO V and R lightcurves we can determine the fundamental parameters of each Cepheid, namely mass,…
We assess the systematic uncertainties in stellar evolutionary calculations for low- to intermediate-mass, main-sequence stars. We compare published stellar tracks from several different evolution codes with our own tracks computed using…
We use models of coupled thermal evolution and photo-evaporative mass loss to understand the formation and evolution of the Kepler-36 system. We show that the large contrast in mean planetary density observed by Carter et al. (2012) can be…
Core overshoot is a large source of uncertainty in constructing stellar models. Whether the amount of overshoot is constant or mass dependent is not completely known, even though models sometimes assume a mass-based trend. In this work we…
We present a differential study of 500 Magellanic Cepheids with 3 million measurements obtained as a by-product of the EROS microlensing survey. The data-set is unbiased and provides an excellent basis for a differential analysis between…
Context. The "mass discrepancy" in massive O stars represents a long-standing problem in stellar astrophysics with far-reaching implications for the chemical and dynamical feedback in galaxies. Aims. Our goal is to investigate this mass…
In this article, we test the hypothesis that Cepheids have infrared excesses due to mass loss. We fit a model using the mass-loss rate and the stellar radius as free parameters to optical observations from the OGLE-III survey and infrared…
A deep and detailed examination of 29 classical Cepheids with the Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed three stars with strong nearby extended emission detected in multiple bands which appears to be physically associated with the stars. RS…
Classical Cepheid variable stars are both sensitive astrophysical laboratories and accurate cosmic distance tracers. We have recently investigated how the evolutionary effects of rotation impact the properties of these important stars and…
Hydrodynamic computations of nonlinear Cepheid pulsation models with periods from 20 to 100 day on the evolutionary stage of core helium burning were carried out. Equations of radiation hydrodynamics and time--dependent convection were…
Mass loss and variability are two linked, fundamental properties of evolved stars. In this paper I review our current understanding of these processes, with a particular focus on how observations and models are used to constrain reliable…
Recently published Spitzer observations of the classical Cepheid archetype delta Cephei revealed an extended dusty nebula surrounding this star and its hot companion. The infrared emission resembles a bow shock aligned with the direction of…
Modern tools for modeling stellar evolution, such as MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics), offer state-of-the-art implementations of stellar theories. However, this parametric approach introduces many free parameters that…
Pulsating stars, such as Cepheids and RR Lyrae, offer us a window to measure and study changes due to stellar evolution. In this work, we study the former by calculating a set of evolutionary tracks of stars with an initial mass of 4 to 7…