The all-sky GEOS RR Lyr survey with the TAROT telescopes. Analysis of the Blazhko effect

TL;DR

This study analyzes the Blazhko effect in galactic RRab stars using the GEOS database and TAROT telescope data, revealing complex modulation patterns, cycle-to-cycle variations, and the need for a better physical explanation.

Contribution

It provides new observational insights into the Blazhko effect, including cycle variability and shape diversity, based on extensive data from amateur and robotic telescope observations.

Findings

Blazhko periods are consistent across different pulsation periods.

Light curves show amplitude and frequency modulation.

Blazhko cycle shapes vary, indicating phase shifts.

Abstract

We used the GEOS database to study the Blazhko effect of galactic RRab stars. The database is continuously enriched by maxima supplied by amateur astronomers and by a dedicated survey by means of the two TAROT robotic telescopes. The same value of the Blazhko period is observed at different values of the pulsation periods and different values of the Blazhko periods are observed at the same value of the pulsation period. There are clues suggesting that the Blazhko effect is changing from one cycle to the next. The secular changes in the pulsation and Blazhko periods of Z CVn are anticorrelated. The diagrams of magnitudes against phases of the maxima clearly show that the light curves of Blazhko variables can be explained as modulated signals, both in amplitude and in frequency. The closed curves describing the Blazhko cycles in such diagrams have different shapes, reflecting the phase shifts between the epochs of the brightest maximum and the maximum O-C. Our sample shows that both clockwise and anticlockwise directions are possible for similar shapes. The improved observational knowledge of the Blazhko effect, in addition to some peculiarities of the light curves, have still to be explained by a satisfactory physical mechanism.