The Luminosities of δ Scuti Stars

Abstract

The δ Scuti stars are variables found in the instability strip above the zero-age main sequence. Radial and nonradial pulsation modes have been detected in these stars. The large-amplitude variables with asymmetric light curves are radial pulsators. The pulsation periods are found to be in the period range of 0.03 – 0.25 days. Generally, the light amplitudes are small (total range < 0.3 mag), but some fundamental-mode variables reach 0.70 mag. The majority of the variables have light amplitudes <0.10 mag. Population II δ Scuti variables are frequently called SX Phe stars. Many of these variables have been found in globular clusters, where they populate the blue-straggler domain of the color-magnitude diagrams.