EROS VARIABLE STARS : FUNDAMENTAL-MODE AND FIRST OVERTONE CEPHEIDS IN THE BAR OF THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

TL;DR

This study analyzes 97 Cepheid variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud, identifying first-overtone pulsators and their properties, and discovering a double-mode Cepheid, enhancing understanding of Cepheid pulsation modes and period-luminosity relations.

Contribution

It provides detailed Fourier analysis of LMC Cepheids, confirms the nature of s-Cepheids as first-overtone pulsators, and reports the discovery of a double-mode Cepheid with a Galactic-like period ratio.

Findings

s-Cepheids are first-overtone pulsators with distinct period-luminosity characteristics.

The blue edge of the Cepheid instability strip matches theoretical predictions for fundamental mode.

A double-mode Cepheid with a period ratio similar to Galactic counterparts was discovered.

Abstract

We present CCD phase-binned light curves at 490 nm for 97 Cepheid variable stars in the bar of the LMC. The photometry was obtained as part of the French EROS project and has excellent phase coverage, permitting accurate decomposition into Fourier components. We identify as `sinusoidal' or s-Cepheids those stars with periods less than 5.5 d and small second-harmonic components. These stars comprise $\sim$30% of our sample and most form a sequence $\sim$1 mag brighter than the LMC classical Cepheids in the period-luminosity diagram. They are also generally bluer and have lower-amplitude light curves. We infer that the s-Cepheids are first-overtone pulsators because, when their periods are converted to expected fundamental-mode values, they obey a common period-luminosity-colour relation with classical Cepheids. This also confirms the reality of the colour term in the Cepheid period-luminosity-colour relation. Further, the blue edge of the classical Cepheid instability strip agrees well with the theoretical calculations for the fundamental mode made by Chiosi et al. (1993) for the Hertzsprung-Russell and period-luminosity diagrams, but we find that our observed s-Cepheids are $>0.2$ mag brighter and bluer than the Chiosi et al.\ predictions for the first-overtone. We identify a number of features in plots of our stars' Fourier-component amplitude ratios and phase differences. These features have been identified with resonances between different pulsation modes. In the LMC we find these features seem to occur at periods very similar to Galactic ones for classical Cepheids, but at different periods for s-Cepheids. We discover a double-mode Cepheid in the LMC, for which $P({\rm first overtone})/P({\rm fundamental}) = 0.710 \pm 0.001$, very similar to observed ratios for Galactic double-mode Cepheids.