Nainital Microlensing Survey -- detection of short period Cepheids in the disk of M31

Abstract

The discovery of large number of Cepheid variables in far-off galaxies offers a unique opportunity to determine the accurate distance of the host galaxy through their period-luminosity relation. The main aim of the present study is to identify short-period and relatively faint Cepheids in the crowded field of M31 disk which was observed as part of the Nainital Microlensing Survey. The Cousins R and I-band photometric observations were obtained with a 1-m telescope on more than 150 nights over the period between November 1998 to January 2002. The data was analysed using the pixel technique and the mean magnitudes of the Cepheids were determined by correlating their pixel fluxes with the corresponding PSF-fitted photometric magnitudes. Here, we report identification of 39 short-period Cepheid variables in the M31 disk. Most of the Cepheids are found with R (mean) ~ 20-21 mag and the dense phase coverage of our observations enabled us to identify Cepheids with periods as short as 3.4 days The frequency-period distribution of these Cepheids peaks at logP ~ 0.9 and 1.1 days.

9 pages, 5 figs, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

References in corpus (11)

• A new Cepheid distance to the maser-host galaxy NGC 4258 and its implications for the Hubble Constant
• RR Lyrae Stars in the Andromeda Halo from Deep Imaging with the Advanced Camera for Surveys
• Classical novae from the POINT-AGAPE microlensing survey of M31 -- I. The nova catalogue
• The POINT-AGAPE Survey I: The Variable Stars in M31
• A comprehensive study of Cepheid variables in the Andromeda galaxy. Period distribution, blending and distance determination
• The Angstrom Project: a microlensing survey of the structure and composition of the bulge of the Andromeda galaxy
• The Wendelstein Calar Alto Pixellensing Project (WeCAPP): The M31 Variable Star Catalogue
• Variable stars towards the bulge of M31: the AGAPE catalogue
• First microlensing candidate towards M31 from the Nainital Microlensing Survey
• Photometric biases due to stellar blending: implications for measuring distances, constraining binarity and detecting exoplanetary transits
• Photometric study of two novae in M31

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury XIII: The Cepheid period-luminosity relation in M31
• Hide and seek between Andromeda's halo, disk, and giant stream
• Population I Cepheids and star formation history of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• VI-Band Follow-Up Observations of Ultra-Long-Period Cepheid Candidates in M31
• A Long-term photometric variability and spectroscopic study of luminous blue variable AF And in M31
• Long-term photometric study of a faint W UMa binary in the direction of M31
• Population I Cepheids and understanding star formation history of the Small Magellanic Cloud