Related papers: Blue Loops, Cepheids, and Forays into Axions
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…
We investigate the influence of convective overshoot on stellar evolution models of the thermal pulse AGB phase with M_ZAMS = 3 Msol. An exponential diffusive overshoot algorithm is applied to all convective boundaries during all…
Current massive star evolution grids are not able to simultaneously reproduce the empirical upper luminosity limit of red supergiants, the Humphrey-Davidson (HD) limit at high and low metallicity. In this study, we provide a better…
Classical Cepheid variable stars are high-sensitivity probes of stellar evolution and fundamental tracers of cosmic distances. While rotational mixing significantly affects the evolution of Cepheid progenitors (intermediate-mass stars), the…
In this work, we investigate the impact of uncertainties due to convective boundary mixing (CBM), commonly called `overshoot', namely the boundary location and the amount of mixing at the convective boundary, on stellar structure and…
Measurements of rates of period change of Classical Cepheids probe stellar physics and evolution. Additionally, better understanding of Cepheid structure and evolution provides greater insight into their use as standard candles and tools…
Using Gaia DR3 we derive new distances and luminosities for a sample of Galactic B supergiants which were thought to be post main-sequence (MS) objects from their HR diagram location beyond the terminal-age MS (TAMS). When applying the…
Over the past decade, the Secret Lives of Cepheids (SLiC) program has been carried out at Villanova University to study aspects and behaviors of classical Cepheids that are still not well-understood. In this, the first of several planned…
Uncertainties on central mixing in main sequence (MS) and core He-burning (He-B) phases affect key predictions of stellar evolution such as late evolutionary phases, chemical enrichment, ages etc. We propose a test of the extension of…
Theoretical predictions for the core helium burning phase of stellar evolution are highly sensitive to the uncertain treatment of mixing at convective boundaries. In the last few years, interest in constraining the uncertain structure of…
We investigate a selected sample of Galactic classical Cepheids with available distance and reddening estimates in the framework of the theoretical scenario provided by pulsation models, computed with metal abundance Z=0.02, helium content…
In the course of the life of a massive star, wind-wind interaction can give rise to the formation of circumstellar nebulae which are both predicted and observed in the nature. We present generic model calculations to predict the properties…
We present the results of non-linear pulsation modelling of 20 bump Cepheids in the LMC. By obtaining a optimal fit to the observed V,R MACHO lightcurves we have placed tight constraints on stellar parameters of M, L, Teff and well as…
The red-giant branch bump provides valuable information for the investigation of the internal structure of low-mass stars. Because current models are unable to accurately predict the occurrence and efficiency of mixing processes beyond…
Context. A longstanding challenge for understanding classical Cepheids is the Cepheid mass discrepancy, where theoretical mass estimates using stellar evolution and stellar pulsation calculations have been found to differ by approximately…
The circumstellar medium around massive stars is strongly impacted by stellar winds, radiation, and explosions. We use numerical simulations of these interactions to constrain the current properties and evolutionary history of various stars…
Two problems about the faintest Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) Cepheids are addressed. On one hand evolutionary tracks fail to cross the Cepheid Instability Strip for the highest magnitudes (i.e. I-mag~17) where Cepheids are observed;…
Classical Cepheid variable stars have been important indicators of extragalactic distance and Galactic evolution for over a century. The Spitzer Space Telescope has opened the possibility of extending the study of Cepheids into the mid- and…
The evolution of massive stars is affected by a variety of physical processes including convection, rotation, mass loss and binary interaction. Because these processes modify the internal chemical abundance profiles in multiple ways…
We present the evolution of a 6M$_{\odot}$ star, of solar-like initial metallicity, and investigate the effects of key nuclear reaction rates, as well as the treatment of the convective mixing on its evolution along the Cepheid instability…