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Context. The Baade-Wesselink (BW) method of distance determination of Cepheids is used to calibrate the distance scale. Various versions of this method are mainly based on interferometry and/or the surface-brightness color relation (SBCR). Aims. We quantify the impact of the SBCR, its slope, and its zero point on the projection factor. This quantity is used to convert the pulsation velocity into the radial velocity in the BW method. We also study the impact of extinction and of a potential circumstellar environment on the projection factor. Methods. We analyzed HARPS-N spectra of η Aql to derive its radial velocity curve using different methods. We then applied the inverse BW method using various SBCRs in the literature in order to derive the BW projection factor. Results. We find that the choice of the SBCR is critical: a scatter of about 8% is found in the projection factor for different SBCRs in the literature. The uncertainty on the coefficients of the SBCR affects the statistical precision of the projection factor only little (1–2%). Confirming previous studies, we find that the method with which the radial velocity curve is derived is also critical, with a potential difference on the projection factor of 9%. An increase of 0.1 in E(B − V) translates into a decrease in the projection factor of 3%. A 0.1 mag effect of a circumstellar envelope (CSE) in the visible domain is rather small on the projection factor, about 1.5%. However, we find that a 0.1 mag infrared excess in the K band due to a CSE can increase the projection factor by about 6%. Conclusions. The impact of the surface-brightness color relation on the BW projection factor is found to be critical. Efforts should be devoted in the future to improve the SBCR of Cepheids empirically, but also theoretically, taking their CSE into account as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the analysis of Blazhko-type modulation in double-mode RR Lyrae (RRd) stars found in the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) photometry of the Galactic bulge. Modulation is detected in 15 stars. Most of them have non-typical period ratio of the radial modes. In the Petersen diagram, at a given period of the fundamental mode, they are located significantly below or above the sequence formed by the majority of RRd stars. Multiperiodic modulation is very frequent; two or three modulation periods are detected in eight stars. Modulation periods vary from ∼20 to more than 300 d. Radial mode amplitudes can be modulated by a few to nearly 100 per cent. Both radial modes may be modulated with the same period. More commonly however, dominant modulation for the fundamental mode has different period than dominant modulation for the first overtone. Quite often modulation of only one mode is detected in the data. We find a clear feedback between pulsation amplitude of the dominant mode and mean stellar brightness: the lower the pulsation amplitude, the brighter the star. At phases of low pulsation amplitude, the mode periods are prone to fast changes. All the stars share the common feature: their pulsation properties are non-stationary. Amplitudes and phases of the radial modes vary irregularly on a long time-scale of a few hundred or thousand days. The short-term modulations are also irregular. One of the stars has switched the pulsation mode recently: from single-mode fundamental mode pulsation to RRd state. In other star the non-radial mode with characteristic ∼0.61 period ratio to the first overtone is detected. This non-radial mode is likely modulated with the same period as the radial modes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present non-linear hydrodynamic pulsation models for OGLE-BLG-RRLYR-02792 – a 0.26 M⊙ pulsator, component of the eclipsing binary system, analysed recently by Pietrzyński et al. The star’s light and radial velocity curves mimic that of classical RR Lyrae stars, except for the bump in the middle of the ascending branch of the radial velocity curve. We show that the bump is caused by the 2:1 resonance between the fundamental mode and the second overtone – the same mechanism that causes the Hertzsprung bump progression in classical Cepheids. The models allow us to constrain the parameters of the star, in particular to estimate its absolute luminosity (≈33 L⊙) and effective temperature (≈6970 K, close to the blue edge of the instability strip).We conduct a model survey for the new class of low-mass pulsators similar to OGLE-BLG-RRLYR-02792 – products of evolution in the binary systems. We compute a grid of models with masses corresponding to half (or less) of the typical mass of RR Lyrae variable, 0.20 ≤ M ≤ 0.30 M⊙, and discuss the properties of the resulting light and radial velocity curves. Resonant bump progression is clear and may be used to distinguish such stars from classical RR Lyrae stars. We present the Fourier decomposition parameters for the modelled light and radial velocity curves. The expected values of the φ31 Fourier phase for the light curves differ significantly from that observed in RR Lyrae stars, which is another discriminant of the new class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT We report the discovery of a period doubling behaviour in a 2.4-d BL Herculis type variable of the Galactic bulge. Another bulge BL Her type star ( P = 2.25 d) is a strong period doubling candidate. Both objects have been identified with the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) photometry. Possibility of period doubling in this type of pulsators has been predicted almost 20 yr ago by Buchler & Moskalik. Our finding is the first observational confirmation of their theoretical results. Discovery of the first BL Herculis star showing the period doubling effect motivates a new theoretical investigation with the state-of-the-art convective pulsation codes. We present the results of initial model survey, specifically aimed at studying the observed period-doubled BL Her variable. All of our non-linear models have P = 2.4 d. The computations confirm that the period doubling effect is caused by the 3:2 resonance between the fundamental mode and the first overtone, as indicated by earlier radiative models of Buchler & Moskalik. Comparison of the computed and the observed light curves allows us to constrain the parameters of the star, in particular its metallicity, which appears to be high, Z ≈ 0.01. The recent evolutionary tracks put also constraint on the mass of the star, which is close to M = 0.50 M⊙. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]