X-Rays in Cepheids: Identifying Low-mass Companions of Intermediate-mass Stars*
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract X-ray observations have been made of a sample of 20 classical Cepheids, including two new observations (Polaris and l Car) reported here. The occurrence of X-ray flux around the pulsation cycle is discussed. Three Cepheids are detected (δ Cep, β Dor, and Polaris). X-rays have also been detected from the low-mass F, G, and K companions of four Cepheids (V473 Lyr, R Cru, V659 Cen, and W Sgr) and one hot companion (S Mus). Upper limits on the X-ray flux of the remaining Cepheids provide an estimate that 28% have low-mass companions. This fraction of low-mass companions in intermediate-mass Cepheids is significantly lower than expected from random pairing with the field initial mass function (IMF). Combining the companion fraction from X-rays with that from ultraviolet observations results in a binary/multiple fraction of 57% ± 12% for Cepheids with ratios q > 0.1 and separations a >1 au. This is a lower limit since M stars are not included. X-ray observations detect less massive companions than other existing studies of intermediate-mass stars. Our measured occurrence rate of unresolved, low-mass companions to Cepheids suggests that intermediate-period binaries derive from a combination of disk and core fragmentation and accretion. This yields a hybrid mass ratio distribution that is skewed toward small values compared to a uniform distribution but is still top-heavy compared to random pairings drawn from the IMF.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".