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We present a physically motivated explanation for the observed, monotonic increase in slope, and the simultaneous (and also monotonic) decrease in the width/scatter of the Leavitt Law (the Cepheid Period-Luminosity (PL) relation) as one…
The first results are presented of a four-year program dedicated to the CCD observations of Cepheids in the nearby galaxy IC 1613. Since the program was carried out with a relatively small telescope, the Dutch 0.9 m at ESO-La Silla, the…
The correlation of particular Fourier components of the light curves of RR Lyrae variables with metallicity, discovered by Simon and later by Kovacs and his coworkers, is shown to have the same explanation as the period ratios (period…
It has been shown recently that the infrared emission of Cepheids, which is constant over the pulsation cycle, might be due to a pulsating shell of ionized gas of about 15\% of the stellar radius, which could be attributed to the…
We present some recent findings concerning the use of RR Lyrae as distance indicators and stellar tracers. We outline pros and cons of field and cluster RR Lyrae stars and discuss recent theoretical findings concerning the use of the Bailey…
Calibration of the period-luminosity relation (PLR) for Cepheids has always been one of the biggest goals of stellar astronomy. Among a considerable number of different approaches, the Baade-Becker-Wesselink (BBW) method stands in the…
We study optical light curve(LC) relations of type Ia supernovae(SNe~Ia) for their use in cosmology using high-quality photometry published by the Carnegie-Supernovae-Project (CSP-I). We revisit the classical luminosity-decline-rate…
The period of pulsation and the structure of the light curve for Cepheid and RR Lyrae variables depend on the fundamental parameters of the star: mass, radius, luminosity, and effective temperature. Here we train artificial neural networks…
Based on updated pulsation models for Classical Cepheids, computed for various assumptions about the metallicity and helium abundance, roughly representative of pulsators in the Small Magellanic Cloud ($Z$=$0.004$ and $Y$=$0.25$), Large…
The universality of the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relations has been under discussion since metallicity effects have been assumed to play a role in the value of the intercept and, more recently, of the slope of these relations. The goal of…
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…
We suggest that low optical depth in the Lyman continuum (LyC) may relate the Ly-alpha emission, C II and Si II absorption, and C II* and Si II* emission seen in high-redshift galaxies. We base this analysis on Hubble Space Telescope COS…
A new fine grid of nonlinear convective pulsation models for the so-called "bump Cepheids" is presented to investigate the Hertzprung progression (HP) phenomenon shown by their light and radial pulsation velocity curves. The period…
From our Secret Lives of Cepheids program, the prototype Classical Cepheid, $\delta$ Cep, is found to be an X-ray source with periodic pulsation-modulated X-ray variations. This finding complements our earlier reported phase-dependent…
Our former study on the empirical relations between the Fourier parameters of the light curves of the fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars and their basic stellar parameters has been extended to considerably larger data sets. The most…
We use the pulsational properties of the RR Lyrae variables in the globular cluster NGC 1851 to obtain detailed constraints of the various sub-stellar populations present along its horizontal branch. On the basis of detailed synthetic…
We have probed the pulsating variable star content of the isolated Local Group dwarf galaxy, DDO210 (Aquarius), using archival Advanced Camera for Surveys/$Hubble$ $Space$ $Telescope$ imaging in the F475W and F814W passbands. We find a…
Type II Cepheids (T2C) are less frequently used counterparts of classical Cepheids which provide the primary calibration of the distance ladder for measuring $H_0$ in the local Universe. In the era of the Hubble Tension, T2C variables with…
RR~Lyrae variables are widely used tracers of Galactic halo structure and kinematics, but they can also serve to constrain the distribution of the old stellar population in the Galactic bulge. With the aim of improving their near-infrared…
RR Lyrae stars are excellent tracers of the old population II due to their period-luminosity (PL) and period-luminosity-metallicity (PLZ) relations. While these relations have been investigated in detail in many photometric bands, there are…