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We present the results of a search for short-period variable stars in Leo A. We have found 92 candidate variables, including eight candidate RR Lyrae stars. From the RR Lyraes, we measure a distance modulus of (m-M)_0 = 24.51 +/- 0.12, or 0.80 +/- 0.04 Mpc. This discovery of RR Lyraes confirms, for the first time, the presence of an ancient (> ~11 Gyr) population in Leo A accounting for at least 0.1% of the galaxys V luminosity. We have also discovered a halo of old (> ~2 Gyr) stars surrounding Leo A, with a scale length roughly 50% larger than that of the dominant young population. We also report the discovery of a large population of Cepheids in Leo A. The median absolute magnitude of our Cepheid sample is M_V = -1.1, fainter than 96% of SMC and 99% of LMC Cepheids. Their periods are also unusual, with three Cepheids that are deduced to be pulsating in the fundamental mode having periods of under 1 day. Upon examination, these characteristics of the Leo A Cepheid population appear to be a natural extension of the classical Cepheid period-luminosity relations to low metallicity, rather than being indicative of a large population of ``anomalous Cepheids. We demonstrate that the periods and luminosities are consistent with the expected values of low-metallicity blue helium-burning stars (BHeBs), which populate the instability strip at lower luminosities than do higher-metallicity BHeBs.
Continuous, high-precision photometry from space revolutionized many fields of stellar astrophysics, and that extends to the well-studied families of RR Lyrae and Cepheid variable stars as well. After the pioneering work of MOST, the CoRoT and Kepler
We report the discovery of a large number of short-period variable stars in the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC6822, based on deep time-series imaging carried out with the ESO Very Large Telescope. In particular, we found a modest population of RR Lyrae s
Mira variables, RR Lyrae variables, and type II Cepheids all represent evolved states of low-mass stars, and long term observations have revealed that changes in pulsation period occur for each of these classes of variable. Most Mira variables show s
We document the presence of a few Cepheid and RR Lyrae variable stars with previously unrecognized characteristics. These stars exhibit the property of a period ratio of main pulsation divided by secondary pulsation P1/P2 very close to sqrt(2). Other
The Blazhko effect is the conspicuous amplitude and phase modulation of the pulsation of RR Lyrae stars that was discovered in the early 20th century. The field of study of this mysterious modulation has recently been invigorated thanks to the space