Astron. Astrophys. 324, 133-136 (1997)

4. Conclusions

In the previous sections we supplied a quantitative description of the DMC light curves by means of their Fourier parameters and their progressions as function of the period. We detected and determined very precise ranges of generalized phase differences as function of the order fit, also establishing the uniformity of the Fourier parameter distribution. In such a context, these uniformities make the DMC light curves very similar to the single-mode Cepheid ones. Hence, the physical properties of the pulsation should be the same and, at least to a first approximation, the adiabatic approximation provides a satisfactory understanding of the phenomenon (Antonello 1994b)

It will be very interesting now to verify the properties of the generalized phase differences in the more numerous sample constituted by the DMCs of the Large Magellanic Clouds (Alcock et al. 1996, Welch et al. 1996); to do this, we consider it an essential step to apply the frequency analysis described in Paper I in order to avoid spurious or unreliable results.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1997

Online publication: May 26, 1998

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