CORRELATION OF MAXIMA IN LONG-PERIOD VARIABLE STARS: FROM EDDINGTON TO PRESENT TIME

摘要

Eddington during the years of pioneering in General Relativity worked also in observational statistics of variable stars, and proposed a model for Cepheids’ pulsation. The statistical analysis of time series of long-period variable stars (Mira): Mira Ceti and χ Cygni made by Eddington and Plakidis in 1929 has been extended to luminosities dominion and to R Leonis and R Hydrae. The difference between consecutive maxima ΔM is negatively correlated with the magnitude M of the first maximum of the pair. Bright maxima are preferentially followed by dim ones, excepted for R Hydrae. It shows a possible two-periods time pattern of its maxima, which makes easier predictions of its maxima. Our two-points correlation analysis is still not enough to give a satisfactory predictive model of maxima sequence.