Speaker
Description
Mira variables represent late evolutionary stages of asymptotic giant branch stars and exhibit complex photometric and spectroscopic behaviour. We investigate Mira variables in the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds, including objects located in open and globular clusters.
The main goal is to create a comprehensive catalogue of Mira stars and compare their properties in different stellar environments. We analyse their distribution, variability characteristics, and long-term time-series behaviour in order to identify both common trends and significant differences between individual groups of Mira variables.
Special attention is devoted to the distinction between oxygen-rich (O-rich) and carbon-rich (C-rich) Miras using spectroscopic and photometric data, and to evaluating whether photometric classification alone is sufficiently reliable. We also investigate the presence of secondary periods in selected objects and study the influence of circumstellar dust on observed variability and classification.
Finally, we discuss possible misclassifications of Mira variables in existing catalogues and their implications for studies of stellar populations and late stellar evolution.