Synthetic population of binary Cepheids. I. The effect of metallicity and initial parameter distribution on characteristics of Cepheids' companions

Understand

The majority of classical Cepheids are binary stars, yet the contribution of companions' light to the total brightness of the system has been assumed negligible and lacked a thorough, quantitative evaluation.

• We present an extensive study of synthetic populations of binary Cepheids, that aims to characterize Cepheids' companions (e.g.
• masses, evolutionary and spectral types), quantify their contribution to the brightness and color of Cepheid binaries, and assess the relevance of input parameters on the results.
• We introduce a collection of synthetic populations, which vary in metal content, initial parameter distribution, location of the instability strip edges, and star formation history.