Updated pulsation models for BL Herculis stars

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 16, 0080131 Naples, Italy e-mail: dicrisci@na.astro.it
² Universitá di Roma “Tor Vergata”, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, Rome, Italy

Received: 26 October 2006
Accepted: 2 January 2007

Abstract

Context.Population II pulsating variables play a relevant role both as distance indicators and as tracers of the properties of old stellar populations.

Aims.In this paper we present an updated and homogeneous pulsational scenario for a wide range of stellar parameters typical of BL Her stars, i.e., Population II Cepheids with periods shorter than 8 days.

Methods.For this purpose, we adopt a nonlinear convective hydrodinamical code to evaluate the stability and full amplitude behavior of an extensive set of BL Her pulsation models. Various assumptions of mass, luminosity, and metallicity consistent with the most recent evolutionary prescriptions, are adopted.

Results.We obtain the theoretical instability strip for both fundamental and first overtone pulsators and present a detailed atlas of light/radial-velocity curves. Some relations for the boundaries of the instability strip and for the dependence of the absolute magnitude on period, mass, and color, as well as the fundamental period-amplitude relations are derived. Finally, we provide the theoretical period-radius relation for BL Her and find that it is in an excellent agreement with the empirical relation by Burki & Meylan (1986, A&A, 159, 255) and is consistent with the one holding for shorter periods for RR Lyrae stars.