Period Changes in RV Tauri Stars: Observations and Simulations
Volume 21 number 2 (1992)
- John R. Percy
- Erindale Campus, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6
- Alexandra Csatary
- Erindale Campus, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6
- Ingrid Zorgdrager
- Erindale Campus, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 1C6
Abstract
We have determined the times and magnitudes of minimum brightness of two RV Tauri stars (SS Gem and V Vul) using data from the AAVSO and from the literature. We have used these to construct (O-C) diagrams. These are dominated by cyclic features with time scales ranging from several to several hundred pulsation periods. By constructing simulated (O-C) diagrams, we have shown that the observed (O-C) diagrams could be explained by the accumulation of random, cycle-to-cycle fluctuations in period, as in the case of most Mira stars.