Dwarf Cepheids in the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

We report the results of a multi-epoch survey of the Carina dwarf spheroidal galaxy, carried out with the Blanco 4m telescope at CTIO, which covers the whole galaxy and extends up to a few tidal radii along its major axis. The cadence of the survey was especially designed to detect dwarf Cepheid stars, which are pulsating variables located similar to 2.5 mag below the horizontal branch. Carina turned out to be very rich in these types of stars. With 340 dwarf cepheids, Carina has the highest specific frequency among the dwarf spheroidal galaxies and globular clusters which have been searched for dwarf Cepheid stars. We also detected RR Lyrae stars and anomalous Cepheids in our observations. Several variables, of the three types, were found beyond the tidal radius of Carina.