Estimation of Classical Cepheid's Physical Parameters from NIR Light Curves

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new R-based multivariate classification method for analyzing near-infrared light curves of Classical Cepheids, enabling extraction of physical parameters and automatic classification despite low sensitivity of light curve shape to metallicity.

Contribution

It develops a PCA-based approach for classifying Cepheid light curves in multiple near-infrared bands and estimates optimal cluster partitions, advancing automated analysis of large astronomical datasets.

Findings

Identified 7 optimal clusters for Cepheid light curves in each NIR band.

Found significant correlations between periods, magnitudes, and the first three principal components.

Determined that metallicity has only marginal effects on NIR light curve shapes.

Abstract

Recent space-borne and ground-based observations provide photometric measurements as time series. The effect of interstellar dust extinction in the near-infrared range is only 10% of that measured in the V band. However, the sensitivity of the light curve shape to the physical parameters in the near-infrared is much lower. So, interpreting these types of data sets requires new approaches like the different large-scale surveys, which create similar problems with big data. Using a selected data set, we provide a method for applying routines implemented in R to extract most information of measurements to determine physical parameters, which can also be used in automatic classification schemes and pipeline processing. We made a multivariate classification of 131 Cepheid light curves (LC) in J, H, and K colors, where all the LCs were represented in 20D parameter space in these colors separately. Performing a Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we got an orthogonal coordinate system and squared Euclidean distances between LCs, with 6 significant eigenvalues, reducing the 20-dimension to 6. We also estimated the optimal number of partitions of similar objects and found it to be equal to 7 in each color; their dependence on the period, absolute magnitude, amplitude, and metallicity are also discussed. We computed the Spearman rank correlations, showing that periods and absolute magnitudes correlate with the first three PCs significantly. The first two PC are also found to have a relationship with the amplitude, but the metallicity effects are only marginal. The method shown can be generalized and implemented in unsupervised classification schemes and analysis of mixed and biased samples. The analysis of our Classical Cepheid near-infrared LC sample showed that the J, H, K curves are insufficient for determination of stellar metallicity, with mass being the key factor shaping them.