The Blazhko Effect in RR Lyrae stars: Strong observational support for the oblique pulsator model in three stars

The MACHO Collaboration; Alcock, C.; Alves, D. R.; Becker, A.; Bennett, D. P.; Cook, K. H.; Freeman, K. C.; Griest, K.; Kurtz, D. W.; Lehner, M. J.; Marshall, S. L.; Minniti, D.; Peterson, B. A.; Pratt, M. R.; Quinn, P. J.; Rodgers, A. W.; Sutherland, W.; Tomaney, A.; Vandehei, T.; Welch, D. L.

The Blazhko Effect in RR Lyrae stars: Strong observational support for the oblique pulsator model in three stars

Authors

The MACHO Collaboration

Description

Using the novel data set of the MACHO project, we show that three ``Blazhko Effect'' RR Lyrae stars show nearly-pure amplitude modulation of a single pulsation mode. This is strong observational evidence that the ``Oblique Pulsator Model'' is the correct solution to this 90-year-old problem.
31 pages, 9 Encapsulated PostScript figures. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal