A comprehensive study of Cepheid variables in the Andromeda galaxy. Period distribution, blending and distance determination

Abstract

Extragalactic Cepheids are the basic rungs of the cosmic distance scale. They are excellent standard candles, although their luminosities and corresponding distance estimates can be affected by the particular properties of the host galaxy. Therefore, the accurate analysis of the Cepheid population in other galaxies, and notably in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), is crucial to obtaining reliable distance determinations. We obtained accurate photometry (in B and V passbands) of 416 Cepheids in M31 over a five year campaign within a survey aimed at the detection of eclipsing binaries. The resulting Cepheid sample is the most complete in M31 and has almost the same period distribution as the David Dunlap Observatory sample in the Milky Way. The large number of epochs (~250 per filter) has permitted the characterisation of the pulsation modes of 356 Cepheids, with 281 of them pulsating in the fundamental mode and 75 in the first overtone. The period-luminosity relationship of the fundamental mode Cepheids has been studied and a new approach has been used to estimate the effect of blending. We find that the blending contribution is as important as the metallicity correction when computing Cepheid distance determinations to M31 (~0.1 mag). Since large amplitude Cepheids are less affected by blending, we have used those with an amplitude A_V>0.8 mag to derive a distance to M31 of (m-M)_0=24.32+/-0.12 mag.

arXiv comment10 pages, 9 figures; accepted for publication in A&A

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Cited by in corpus (28)

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• Comparison of Distances from RR Lyrae Stars, the Tip of the Red-Giant Branch and Classical Cepheids
• Radial Metallicity Distribution Breaks at Corotation Radius in Spiral Galaxies
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? II. M31 and beyond
• A sub-2% Distance to M31 from Photometrically Homogeneous Near-Infrared Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relations Measured with the Hubble Space Telescope
• On the distance and reddening of the starburst galaxy IC10
• On Cepheid Distance Scale Bias due to Stellar Companions and Cluster Populations
• The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. V. The Distances to NGC 1448 and NGC 1316 via the Tip of the Red Giant Branch
• Density Variations in the NW Star Stream of M31
• Properties of M31. II: A Cepheid disk sample derived from the first year of PS1 PAndromeda data
• Gas and dark matter in the Sculptor group: NGC 55
• Temperature Differences in the Cepheid Instability Strip Require Differences in the Period-Luminosity Relation in Slope and Zero Point
• The M31 Near-Infrared Period-Luminosity Relation and its non-linearity for $\delta$ Cep Variables with $0.5\le \log (P)\le 1.7$
• Cepheids in M31 - The PAndromeda Cepheid sample
• Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury XIII: The Cepheid period-luminosity relation in M31
• Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury. XIV. The Period-Age Relationship of Cepheid Variables in M31 Star Clusters
• Hide and seek between Andromeda's halo, disk, and giant stream
• Nainital Microlensing Survey -- detection of short period Cepheids in the disk of M31
• Population I Cepheids and star formation history of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Double-mode Cepheids in M31
• VI-Band Follow-Up Observations of Ultra-Long-Period Cepheid Candidates in M31
• The Pulsation Mode and Distance of the Cepheid FF Aquilae
• Application of the Trend Filtering Algorithm on the MACHO Database
• Population I Cepheids and understanding star formation history of the Small Magellanic Cloud