Stars Group : Galactic Structure
Distance indicators ~ "Standard Candles"
Cepheids
RR Lyrae variables
 | Superintendent McDonald Observatory Research Interests Observational aspects of variable stars, particularly distance scale issues for Cepheid and RR Lyrae variables. Group Areas | |
 | Senior Research Scientist Research Interests Space astrometry; search for extrasolar planetary systems; surface photometry of galaxies; barred galaxies. Group Areas | |
 | Research Scientist Research Interests HST Astrometry; search for extrasolar planets. Group Areas | |
The absolute magnitudes in the K band from the ISB distances of Milky Way, LMC and SMC Cepheids, all calculated with the revised p-factor law of this paper. The solid line is the best fit to the Milky Way Cepheid data. The dashed line is the Persson et al. (2004) K-band PL relation for the LMC, for an assumed LMC distance modulus of 18.50. The slopes of the PL relations for both the LMC and Milky Way derived from the ISB technique agree now very well with the slope of the observed K-band relation in the LMC. The slight mean offset of the 5 SMC Cepheids from the Galactic relation has been used by Storm et al. (2004) to constrain the metallicity effect on the zero point of the PL relation.
from
Direct Distances to Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Evidence for a Universal Slope of the Period-Luminosity Relation up to Solar Abundance astro-ph
Large Magellanic Cloud.