2010ApJ...716.1136N

In this paper, we test the hypothesis that Cepheids have infrared excesses due to mass loss. We fit a model using the mass-loss rate and the stellar radius as free parameters to optical observations from the OGLE-III survey and infrared observations from the Two Micron All Sky Survey and SAGE data sets. The sample of Cepheids has predicted minimum mass-loss rates ranging from 0 to 10^–8 M_☉/yr, where the rates depend on the chosen dust properties. We use the predicted radii to compute the period-radius relation for LMC Cepheids and to estimate the uncertainty caused by the presence of infrared excess for determining angular diameters with the infrared surface brightness technique. Finally, we calculate the linear and nonlinear period-luminosity (P-L) relations for the LMC Cepheids at VIJHK + IRAC wavelengths and find that the P-L relations are consistent with being nonlinear at infrared wavelengths contrary to previous results.