Henrietta Leavitt's classical Cepheid relation

Abstract

The Leavitt & Pickering (1912) mean period-magnitude relation for SMC Cepheids exhibits correlated residuals relative to modern Gaia $B_G$ and Johnson $V$ photometry ($r_{δV/δL12}\approx0.76$). Therefore dispersion inherent to Leavitt's photographic photometry relation is not solely random scatter ($σ_{L12,B_G,V}=0.22\pm0.03,0.25\pm0.04,0.20\pm0^{m}.03$), 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 $\gtrsim870$ SMC variables identified by Leavitt (1908, Table 2) are classical Cepheids ($\gtrsim 90$ %), and the preliminary unphased Table 2 photometry likewise features correlated residuals relative to contemporary observations ($r_{δB_G/δL08-T2}\approx0.54$). Table 6 data in Leavitt (1908, $n=16$) define a highly linear Leavitt law over an extensive baseline ($r\approx-0.98$), but constitute a smaller sample than the later 1912 work ($n=25$).