https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201510101003
The space photometry revolution and our understanding of RR Lyrae stars
1 Konkoly Observatory, MTA CSFK, Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15-17. H-1121 Budapest, Hungary
2 Laboratoire Lagrange, Université Nice Sophia-Antipolis, UMR 7293, Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur 06300, Nice, France
3 INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (LC), Italy
4 LESIA, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Denis Diderot, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon Cedex, France
5 Institute of Astronomy, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
6 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138, USA
7 Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, K.U. Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium
8 Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 37077 Gottingen, Germany
9 Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
10 Université de Toulouse, UPS-OMP, IRAP, Toulouse, France
11 CNRS, IRAP, 14, avenue Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France
a e-mail: rszabo@konkoly.hu
Published online: 23 September 2015
The study of RR Lyrae stars has recently been invigorated thanks to the long, uninterrupted, ultra-precise time series data provided by the Kepler and CoRoT space telescopes. We give a brief overview of the new observational findings concentrating on the connection between period doubling and the Blazhko modulation, and the omnipresence of additional periodicities in all RR Lyrae subtypes, except for non-modulated RRab stars. Recent theoretical results demonstrate that if more than two modes are present in a nonlinear dynamical system such as a high-amplitude RR Lyrae star, the outcome is often an extremely intricate dynamical state. Thus, based on these discoveries, an underlying picture of complex dynamical interactions between modes is emerging which sheds new light on the century-old Blazhko-phenomenon, as well. New directions of theoretical efforts, like multidimensional hydrodynamical simulations, future space photometric missions and detailed spectroscopic investigations will pave the way towards a more complete understanding of the atmospheric and pulsation dynamics of these enigmatic touchstone objects.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2015
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
