Web Publications

Correlation of Successive Maxima in Mira, c Cygni, R Leonis,

and R Hydrae

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Costantino Sigismondi

Yale University, Department of Astronomy, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520-8101

and

International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (ICRA), University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Physics Department, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 00185, Rome, Italy

Received April 23, 2002

Abstract  An analysis was done of the maxima of Mira Ceti, c Cygni, R Leonis, and R Hydrae, four Mira-type variable stars chosen from among those studied by Argelander in 1839. A negative correlation between the luminosity of consecutive maxima was found, except for R Hya. M_i+1 - M_i vs. M_i yields a correlation index of r² = 0.6 for Mira and c Cyg, r² = 0.44 for R Leo, and r² = 0.25 for R Hya. Data analyzed range from the discovery of Mira (1596) to the present time; they include AAVSO data, and there are from 90 (R Hya) to 179 (Mira Ceti) pairs of consecutive maxima.

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