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Description
The observations in the WeCAPP microlensing survey towards the Andromeda galaxy (M31) for a period of three years (2000-2003) resulted in a database with unprecedented time coverage for an extragalactic variable star study. We have monitored a 16.1' x 16.6' field centered on the nucleus of M31 in two optical bands (R and I) using the 0.8-m telescope at Wendelstein, Germany and the 1.2-m telescope at Calar Alto, Spain. Using the difference imaging method we detected 23781 variable sources for which we calculated the periods and variation amplitudes. We classified the variables according to their position in the R-band period-amplitude plane. Three groups can be distinguished; while the first two groups can be mainly associated with Cepheid-like variables (population I Cepheids in group I; type II Cepheids and RV Tauri stars in group II), the third one consists of Long Period Variables (LPVs). We detected 37 RV Tauri stars and 11 RV Tauri candidates, which makes this catalogue one of the largest collections of this class of stars to date. The classification scheme is supported by Fourier decomposition of the light curves. The catalogue of variable stars contains the positions, the periods in R and I, the significance of the assigned periods, and the variation amplitudes in the R and I bands.
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