A new and homogeneous metallicity scale for Galactic classical Cepheids II. The abundance of iron and alpha elements

Understand

Classical Cepheids are the most popular distance indicators and tracers of young stellar populations.

• The key advantage is that they are bright and they can be easily identified in Local Group and Local Volume galaxies.
• Their evolutionary and pulsation properties depend on their chemical abundances.
• The main aim of this investigation is to perform a new and accurate abundance analysis of two tens of calibrating Galactic Cepheids using high spectral resolution (R$\sim$40,000-115,000) and high S/N spectra ($\sim$400) covering the entire pulsation cycle.