Related papers: The metallicity sensitivity of a surface brightnes…
Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) play a fundamental role in the calibration of the extra-galactic distance ladder which eventually leads to the determination of the Hubble constant($H_0$) thanks to the period-luminosity ($PL$) and…
It has been claimed that Period-Luminosity relations derived from infrared observations of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids are less dependent on the metallicity of the Cepheids. In this work, infrared observations of LMC Cepheids from…
It is shown that bright cluster dwarf ellipticals follow a relation between metallicity and apparent flattening. Rounder dwarfs tend to be more metal-rich. The evidence is based on colour as well as spectroscopic line-strength data from the…
We present calculations illustrating the potential of gravitational microlensing to discriminate between classical models of stellar surface brightness profiles and the recently computed ``Next Generation'' models of Hauschildt et al. These…
Estimating metallicity of classical Cepheids is of prime importance for studying metallicity effect on stellar evolution, chemical evolution of galaxies, and ultimately its impact on period-luminosity relation used in the extragalactic…
We present an analysis of high resolution spectra in the far-UV -- UV range (~905-2000\AA) with non-LTE, spherical, hydrodynamical, line-blanketed models, of three O-type Galactic stars, and derive their photospheric and wind parameters.…
This paper is a further step in the investigation of the morphology of the color-magnitude diagram of Galactic globular clusters, and the fine-tuning of theoretical models, made possible by the recent observational efforts to build…
Various effective temperature scales have been proposed over the years. Despite much work and the high internal precision usually achieved, systematic differences of order 100 K (or more) among various scales are still present. We present…
RR Lyrae stars have long been popular standard candles, but significant advances in methodology and technology have been made in recent years to increase their precision as distance indicators. We present multi-wavelength (optical…
We present iron abundance measurements, based on high resolution spectroscopy, and accurate distance determinations, based on near infrared photometry, for 34 Galactic Cepheids. The new data are used to constrain the Galactic iron abundance…
We analysed red giant branch stars in 16 Galactic globular clusters, computing their atmospheric parameters both from the photometry and from excitation and ionisation balances. The spectroscopic parameters are lower than the photometric…
We report on the spread of [Fe/H] values in the massive Large Magellanic Cloud cluster NGC1978, recently confirmed to harbor multiple populations of nearly the same age. We used accurate Stromgren photometry of carefully selected cluster…
One of the outstanding problems in modern physics is the origin is of accelerated expansion of the universe. High-precision determinations of the Hubble parameter $\mbox{H}_0$ at different redshifts provide direct insight into the Universe…
We gathered more than 1130 high-resolution optical spectra for more than 250 Galactic classical Cepheids. The spectra were collected with different optical spectrographs: UVES at VLT, HARPS at 3.6m, FEROS at 2.2m MPG/ESO, and STELLA. To…
We report on a first application of the infrared surface brightness technique on a Cepheid in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the variable HV 12198 in the young globular cluster NGC 1866. From this one star, we determine a distance modulus of…
We present results from a detailed analysis of theoretical and observed light curves of classical Cepheid variables in the Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. Theoretical light curves of Cepheid variables are based on non-linear convective…
Model stellar atmospheres are fundamental tools for understanding stellar observations from interferometry, microlensing, eclipsing binaries and planetary transits. However, the calculations also include assumptions, such as the geometry of…
We have applied the infrared surface brightness (ISB) technique to derive distances to 13 Cepheids in the LMC which span a period range from 3 to 42 days. From the absolute magnitudes of the variables calculated from these distances, we…
The main scope of this paper is to investigate the possible existence of a metallicity dependence of the overshooting from main sequence stars turbulent cores. We focus on objects with masses in the range ~2.5 Msol - ~25 Msol. Basically,…
Context. Precise and accurate determinations of effective temperature and surface gravity are mandatory to derive reliable chemical abundances and fundamental parameters like distances, masses, radii, luminosities of OB stars. Aims.…