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PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv

Henrietta Leavitt's classical Cepheid relation

  • Daniel Majaess
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Abstract

The Leavitt & Pickering (1912) mean period-magnitude relation for SMC Cepheids exhibits correlated residuals relative to modern Gaia BG and Johnson V photometry (rδV/δL12≈0.76). Therefore dispersion inherent to Leavitt's photographic photometry relation is not solely random scatter (σL12,BG,V=0.22±0.03,0.25±0.04,0.20±0m.03), and is potentially consistent with the partial encoding of combined effects from the elongated SMC, classical Cepheid instability strip, differential reddening, etc. OGLE data indicate that ≳870 SMC variables identified by Leavitt (1908, Table 2) are classical Cepheids (≳ 90 %), and the preliminary unphased Table 2 photometry likewise features correlated residuals relative to contemporary observations (rδBG/δL08−T2≈0.54). Table 6 data in Leavitt (1908, n=16) define a highly linear Leavitt law over an extensive baseline (r≈−0.98), but constitute a smaller sample than the later 1912 work (n=25).

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{majaess2026henrietta,
  title = {{Henrietta Leavitt's classical Cepheid relation}},
  author = {Daniel Majaess},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.17415},
  eprint = {2610.17415},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.17415},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Henrietta Leavitt's classical Cepheid relation
AU  - Daniel Majaess
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/12
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.17415
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.17415
AB  - The Leavitt & Pickering (1912) mean period-magnitude relation for SMC Cepheids exhibits correlated residuals relative to modern Gaia B_G and Johnson V photometry (r_δV/δL12≈0.76). Therefore dispersion inherent to Leavitt's photographic photometry relation is not solely random scatter (σ_L12,B_G,V=0.22±0.03,0.25±0.04,0.20±0^m.03), and is potentially consistent with the partial encoding of combined effects from the elongated SMC, classical Cepheid instability strip, differential reddening, etc. OGLE data indicate that ≳870 SMC variables identified by Leavitt (1908, Table 2) are classical Cepheids (≳ 90 %), and the preliminary unphased Table 2 photometry likewise features correlated residuals relative to contemporary observations (r_δB_G/δL08−T2≈0.54). Table 6 data in Leavitt (1908, n=16) define a highly linear Leavitt law over an extensive baseline (r≈−0.98), but constitute a smaller sample than the later 1912 work (n=25).
ER  -