Related papers: Variable Stars and Galactic Structure
I present a review of recent observational work on Cepheid variables and eclipsing binaries in our Galaxy, the Magellanic Clouds, and other members of the Local Group.
Stars are powerful sources for weakly interacting particles that are produced by nuclear or plasma processes in their hot interior. These fluxes can be used for direct measurements (e.g. solar or supernova neutrinos) or the back-reaction on…
(abridged) Type II and anomalous Cepheids (ACs) are useful distance indicators when there are too few classical Cepheids or when RR Lyrae stars are too faint. We study the sample of 335 Type II and ACs in the Small and Large MCls detected…
Results are presented on a study of the short period variable stars in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC6822. We observed an almost uniformely populated classical instability strip from the Horizontal Branch up to the Classical Cepheids…
We present recent results concerning distance determinations based on the two most popular primary distance indicators, namely classical Cepheids and RR Lyrae. We discuss the problems affecting the Cepheid distance scale, and in particular…
Symbiotic stars are long-period interacting binary systems in which an evolved red giant star transfers material to its much hotter compact companion. Such a composition places them among the most variable stars. In addition to periodic…
Symbiotic stars, interacting binaries composed of a cool giant and a hot compact companion, exhibit complex variability across the electromagnetic spectrum. Over the past decades, large-scale photometric and spectroscopic surveys from…
Stellar variability studies are now reaching a completely new level thanks to ESA's Gaia mission, which enables us to locate many variable stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and determine the various instability strips/bands.…
Evolved stars dominate galactic spectra, enrich the galactic medium, expand to change their planetary systems, eject winds of a complex nature, produce spectacular nebulae and illuminate them, and transfer material between binary…
We have used DOLORES at the TNG to obtain B,V time series photometry of NGC 2419, one of the most distant and bright clusters in the Galactic halo. These data will be used to study its variable star population in order to check whether the…
Time-resolved ground-based surveys in general, and photometric ones in particular, have played a crucial role in building up our knowledge of the properties, physical nature, and the very existence of the many different classes of variable…
Observing the stars in our night sky tells us that giant, supergiant and hypergiant stars hold an unique importance in the understanding of stellar populations. Theoretical stellar models predict a rich tapestry of evolved stars. These…
Gaia mission will offer an exceptional opportunity to perform variability studies. The data homogeneity, its optimised photometric systems, composed of 11 medium and 4-5 broad bands, the high photometric precision in G band of one milli-mag…
We present VIVACE, the VIrac VAriable Classification Ensemble, a catalogue of variable stars extracted from an automated classification pipeline for the Vista Variables in the V\'ia L\'actea (VVV) infrared survey of the Galactic bar/bulge…
The study of star clusters plays an important role in our understanding of the Universe since these systems are natural laboratories for testing theories of stellar dynamics and evolution. Particularly, globular clusters (GCs) are one of…
Binary interactions are commonplace among massive stars, giving rise observed phenomena such as X-ray binaries, stripped stars & supernovae, and gravitational-wave sources. The multiplicity properties of massive stars thus represent a…
RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) are easy to identify thanks to their large photometric variation and short periods. All stars in the RRL instability strip are pulsators is often a hidden assumption in most stellar population studies using RRLs.…
Variable stars with well-calibrated period-luminosity relationships provide accurate distance measurements to nearby galaxies and are therefore a vital tool for cosmology and astrophysics. While these measurements typically rely on samples…
Classical and Type II Cepheids are used to reinvestigate specific properties of the Galaxy. A new Type II reddening-free Cepheid distance parameterization is formulated from LMC Cepheids (OGLE), with uncertainties typically no larger than…
The nature of type II Cepheids and anomalous Cepheids is still not well known and their evolutionary channels leave many unanswered questions. We use complete collection of classical pulsating stars in the Magellanic Clouds discovered by…