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K. A. Davis, R. J. Dukes (College of Charleston), W. S. Fitch (U. Az.)
The peculiar Cepheid V473 Lyrae (HR7308) has a very short period of 1.49 days with a pulsation amplitude which varies significantly with an approximately 1200 day period. We have been observing this star with the Four College Consortium Automatic Photometric Telescope since 1991. In this paper we compare our data with the various explanations suggested for the cause of the variation.
These suggestions have included the beating of two or more close frequencies, one is radial and one is non-radial, as well as, an amplitude modulation of a single frequency, and others. Recently Koen (2001, MNRAS, 322, 97) has suggested that this star is analogous to a Blazhko effect RR Lyrae variable with the amplitude variation being explained by a frequency triplet. We suggest that an alternative explanation of a harmonic expansion of a single short period together with one long period provides a better fit to our data. We investigate a model for this modulation of a pulsating star due to a companion in a 1200 day orbit.
This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France and has been funded by NSF Grants #AST86-16362, #AST91-15114, #AST95-28906, and #AST-0071260 all to the College of Charleston. KAD acknowledges support of the South Carolina Space Grant Consortium: Undergraduate Research Program.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.