Photometric Variability of Luminous Blue Variable Stars on Different Time-Scales

Abstract

AbstractWe have compiled historical observations, spanning ∼100 years, for a dozen of the best-studied LBVs in the Local Group. We described how we prepared structure functions for their light-curves and calculated two parameters (the structure function slope and the characteristic time-scale) to describe the behaviour of the LBVs. The sensitivity of those parameters to the variability behaviour of the stars was tested with a number of photometric data sets. The slope of the structure function may anticorrelate with the time-scale. These types of variable stellar objects are crucial to studies of stellar variability and the final stages of stellar evolution.