We present new near-infrared, $JHK_s$, Period--Luminosity relations (PLRs) for RR Lyrae variables in the Messier 53 (M53 or NGC 5024) globular cluster. Multi-epoch $JHK_s$ observations, obtained with the WIRCam instrument on the 3.6-m Canada France Hawaii Telescope, are used for the first time to estimate precise mean-magnitudes for 63 RR Lyrae stars in M53 including 29 fundamental-mode (RRab) and 34 first-overtone modes (RRc) variables. The $JHK_s$-band PLRs for RR Lyrae stars are best constrained for RRab types with a minimal scatter of 22, 23, and 19 mmag, respectively. The combined sample of RR Lyrae is used to derive the $K_s$-band PLR, $K_s = -2.303 (0.063) \log P + 15.212 (0.016)$ exhibiting a $1σ$ dispersion of only $0.027$ mag. Theoretical Period--Luminosity--Metallicity (PLZ) relations are used to predict parallaxes for 400 Galactic RR Lyrae resulting in a median parallax zero-point offset of $-7\pm3~μ$as in {\it Gaia} Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), which increases to $22\pm2~μ$as if the parallax corrections are applied. We also estimate a robust distance modulus, $μ_\textrm{M53} = 16.403 \pm 0.024$ (statistical) $\pm 0.033$ (systematic) mag, to M53 based on theoretical calibrations. Homogeneous and precise mean-magnitudes for RR Lyrae in M53 together with similar literature data for M3, M4, M5, and $ω$ Cen are used to empirically calibrate a new RR Lyrae PLZ$_{K_s}$ relation, $K_s = -0.848 (0.007) -2.320 (0.006) \log P + 0.166 (0.011) {\rm[Fe/H]}$, anchored with {\it Gaia} EDR3 distances and theoretically predicted relations, and simultaneously estimate precise RR Lyrae based distances to these globular clusters.
We present new near-infrared ($JHK_s$) time-series observations of RR Lyrae variables in the Messier 3 (NGC 5272) globular cluster using the WIRCam instrument at the 3.6-m Canada France Hawaii Telescope. Our observations cover a sky area of $\sim 21'\times 21'$ around the cluster center and provide an average of twenty epochs of homogeneous $JHK_s$-band photometry. New homogeneous photometry is used to estimate robust mean magnitudes for 175 fundamental-mode (RRab), 47 overtone-mode (RRc), and 11 mixed-mode (RRd) variables. Our sample of 233 RR Lyrae variables is the largest thus far obtained …
Messier 15 (NGC 7078) is an old and metal-poor post core-collapse globular cluster which hosts a rich population of variable stars. We report new optical ($gi$) and near-infrared (NIR, $JK_s$) multi-epoch observations for 129 RR Lyrae, 4 Population II Cepheids (3 BL Herculis, 1 W Virginis), and 1 anomalous Cepheid variable candidate in M15 obtained using the MegaCam and the WIRCam instruments on the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Multi-band data are used to improve the periods and classification of variable stars, and determine accurate mean magnitudes and pulsational amplitudes from th…
M40 has always been something of an oddity in the Messier Catalogue, since it is just a pair of stars rather than an extended object. Doubts have also been expressed as to whether it is even a physical binary. Here, we note that the Hipparcos/Gaia parallaxes for these two stars remove all doubt: Messier 40 comprises a pair of entirely unrelated stars.
The period changes of 86 M5 RR Lyrae stars have been investigated on a one-hundred-year time base. The published observations have been supplemented by archival Asiago, Konkoly and Las Campanas photographic observations obtained between 1952 and 1993. About two thirds of the O-C diagrams could be fitted by a straight line or a parabola. 21 RR Lyrae stars have increasing, 18 decreasing and 16 constant period. The mean rates of period change of these variables are: <beta> = <\dot{P}> = -0.006\pm0.162 d Myr^{-1}, <alpha> = <P^{-1}\dot{P}> = -0.021 \pm0.308 Myr^{-1}. Ten RR Lyrae stars show fast p…
We provide uniform RR Lyrae-based distances to 39 dwarf galaxies in and around the Local Group. We determine distances based on a Bayesian hierarchical model that uses periods and magnitudes of published RR Lyrae in dwarf galaxies and is anchored to well-studied Milky Way (MW) RR Lyrae with spectroscopic metallicities and Gaia eDR3 parallaxes. Gaia eDR3 parallaxes for the anchor sample are a factor of 2, on average, more precise than DR2 parallaxes, and allow for a much better constrained period-luminosity-metallicity relation. While $\sim75$% of our distances are within 1-$σ$ of recent litera…
Aims: To try and clarify whether there are stars in the neighbourhood of $β$ Lyrae which are physically connected to the famous prototype eclipsing binary. Methods: Scrutinize the astrometric and photometric data (from Hipparcos and Gaia DR2) of stars in a limited sky field around $β$~Lyrae. Results: A star cluster of about 100 members is discovered, nicely centered on $β$~Lyrae in 5 dimensions. There are clear indications that the newly discovered cluster belongs to a larger old (extinct) star formation complex, including two already known star clusters and an extended strewn field of stars a…
A probabilistic approach has been used in combination with the parallax data from Gaia (e)DR3 to calibrate Period-Luminosity-(Abundance) (PLZ) Relations covering a wide range of visual to Infrared observations of RR Lyrae stars. Absolute Magnitude Relations are given, derived from the same selection of stars, for $V$, $G$, $I$, $K_\mathrm{s}$ and WISE $W1$ as well as for for the reddening free pseudo-magnitudes $WBV$, $WVI$ and finally also Gaia $WG$. The classical relation between $M_V$ and [Fe/H] is redetermined and as an illustration distances are given to a few selected objects.
Unveiling the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Core with Gaia DR3: A Red Clump Distance Precise to 2%
The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Whitman College（惠特曼学院）；Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i（夏威夷大学天体物理研究所）；Texas Christian University（得克萨斯基督教大学）；Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer, Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope（莫纳克亚光谱巡天项目，加拿大法国夏威夷望远镜）
Classical double-mode pulsators (RR Lyrae stars and delta Cepheids) are important for their simultaneous pulsation in low-order radial modes. This enables us to put stringent constraints on their physical parameters. We use 30 bright galactic double-mode RR~Lyrae (RRd) stars to estimate their luminosities and compare them with those derived from the parallaxes of the recent data release (EDR3) of the Gaia survey. We employ pulsation and evolutionary models, together with observationally determined effective temperatures to derive the basic stellar parameters. Excluding 6 outlying stars (e.g., …
RR Lyrae stars have long been popular standard candles, but significant advances in methodology and technology have been made in recent years to increase their precision as distance indicators. We present multi-wavelength (optical $UBVR_cI_c$ and Gaia $G, BP, RP$; near-infrared $JHK_s$; mid-infrared $[3.6], [4.5]$) period-luminosity-metallicity (PLZ), period-Wesenheit-metallicity (PWZ) relations, calibrated using photometry obtained from The Carnegie RR Lyrae Program and parallaxes from the Gaia second data release for 55 Galactic field RR Lyrae stars. The metallicity slope, which has long bee…
We present an overview of the Specific Objects Study (SOS) pipeline developed within the Coordination Unit 7 (CU7) of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC), the coordination unit charged with the processing and analysis of variable sources observed by Gaia, to validate and fully characterise Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars observed by the spacecraft. We describe how the SOS for Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars (SOS Cep&RRL) was specifically tailored to analyse Gaia's G-band photometric time-series with a South Ecliptic Pole (SEP) footprint, which covers an external region of the Large…
Like Hipparcos, Gaia is designed to give absolute parallaxes, independent of any astrophysical reference system. And indeed, Gaia's internal zero-point error for parallaxes is likely to be smaller than any individual parallax error. Nevertheless, due in part to mechanical issues of unknown origin, there are many astrophysical questions for which the parallax zero-point error $σ(π_0)$ will be the fundamentally limiting constraint. These include the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galactic Center. We show that by using the photometric parallax estimates for RR Lyrae stars (RRL) wi…
We attempt to identify RR Lyrae (RRL) stars in stellar streams that might have escaped from seven globular clusters (GCs) based on proper motions, distances, color-magnitude diagrams, and other properties extracted from the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) database. Specifically, we cross-match two large RRL stars catalogs (from Gaia DR2 and Catalina Sky Survey) with each other and with the EDR3 database and we end up with a sample of ~ 150,000 unique RRL stars. We calculate distances to RRL stars using the (M_G-[Fe/H]) and (M_V-[Fe/H]) absolute magnitude-metallicity relations and adopt [Fe/H]…
We present results from the analysis of 401 RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) belonging to the field of the Milky Way (MW). For a fraction of them multi-band ($V$, $K_{\rm s}$, $W1$) photometry, metal abundances, extinction values and pulsation periods are available in the literature and accurate trigonometric parallaxes measured by the Gaia mission alongside Gaia $G$-band time-series photometry have become available with the Gaia second data release (DR2) on 2018 April 25. Using a Bayesian fitting approach we derive new near-, mid-infrared period-absolute magnitude-metallicity ($PMZ$) relations and new a…
We present a kinematical study of 314 RR~Lyrae stars in the solar neighbourhood using the publicly available photometric, spectroscopic, and {\it Gaia} DR2 astrometric data to explore their distribution in the Milky Way. We report an overdensity of 22 RR~Lyrae stars in the solar neighbourhood at a pericenter distance of between 5--9\,kpc from the Galactic center. Their orbital parameters and their chemistry indicate that these 22 variables share the kinematics and the [Fe/H] values of the Galactic disc, with an average metallicity and tangential velocity of [Fe/H]=$-0.60$\,dex and $v_θ = 241$\…
We present a catalogue of 285 RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) in the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph), obtained by combining data from a number of different surveys including the second data release (DR2) of the European Space Agency (ESA) cornerstone mission Gaia. We have determined individual distances to the RRLs in our sample using for the first time a Gaia G-band luminosity-metallicity relation (MG - [Fe/H]) and study the structure of the Draco dSph as traced by its RRL population. We find that the RRLs located in the western/south-western region of Draco appear to be closer to us, which may be…
We present new luminosity-metallicity (LZ; MV-[Fe/H] and MG-[Fe/H]) relations and, for the first time, empirical, Gaia three-band (G,GBP,GRP) period-Wesenheit-metallicity (PWZ) relations of RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) derived using a hierarchical Bayesian approach and new accurate parallaxes published for these variables in the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3). In a previous study we obtained Bayesian hierarchically-derived LZ relations from a sample of about four hundred Milky Way field RRLs with G-band light curves and trigonometric parallaxes published in the Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2), using V me…
Improving reddening estimates for RR Lyrae stars in the Gaia bands: a machine learning approach to the PAC(Z) relation
INAF - Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所博洛尼亚天文与空间科学观测站）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学物理与天文系）
We present new empirical infrared Period-Luminosity-Metallicity (PLZ) and Period-Wesenheit-Metallicity (PWZ) relations for RR Lyrae based on the latest Gaia EDR3 parallaxes. The relations are provided in the WISE $W1$ and $W2$ bands, as well as in the $W(W1, V - W1)$ and $W(W2, V - W2)$ Wesenheit magnitudes. The relations are calibrated using a very large sample of Galactic halo field RR Lyrae stars with homogeneous spectroscopic [Fe/H] abundances (over 1,000 stars in the $W1$ band), covering a broad range of metallicities ($-2.5 \lesssim \textrm{[Fe/H]} \lesssim 0.0$). We test the performance…
We discuss the impact that Gaia, a European Space Agency (ESA) cornerstone mission that has been in scientific operations since July 2014, is expected to have on the definition of the cosmic distance ladder and the study of resolved stellar populations in and beyond the Milky Way, specifically focusing on results based on Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars. Gaia is observing about 1.7 billion sources, measuring their position, trigonometric parallax, proper motions and time-series photometry in 3 pass-bands down to a faint magnitude limit of G $\sim$21 mag. Among them are thousands of Cepheids and hu…
Classical variables like RR Lyrae, classical and Type-II Cepheids and Mira variables all follow period-luminosity relations that make them interesting as distance indicators. Especially the RR Lyrae and delta Cepheids are crucial in establishing the distance scale in the Universe, and all classes of variables can be used as tracers of galactic structure. I will present an overview of recent period-luminosity relations and review the work that has been done using the Gaia DR1 data so far, and discuss possibilities for the future
We analysed 30 RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) globular cluster Reticulum that were observed in the 3.6 and 4.5 $μ$m passbands with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on board of the Spitzer Space Telescope. We derived new mid-infrared (MIR) period-luminosity PL relations. The zero points of the PL relations were estimated using the trigonometric parallaxes of five bright Milky Way (MW) RRLs measured with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and, as an alternative, we used the trigonometric parallaxes published in the first Gaia data release (DR1) which were obtaine…
On the basis of an extended set of nonlinear convective RR Lyrae pulsation models we derive the first theoretical light curves in the Gaia bands and the corresponding intensity-weighted mean magnitudes and pulsation amplitudes. The effects of chemical com-position on the derived Bailey diagrams in the Gaia filters are discussed for both Fundamental and First Overtone mode pulsators. The inferred mean magnitudes and colors are used to derive the first theoretical Period-Wesenheit relations for RR Lyrae in the Gaia filters. The application of the theoretical Period-Wesenheit relations for both t…
Gaia Data Release 1 contains parallaxes for more than 700 Galactic Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars, computed as part of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS). We have used TGAS parallaxes, along with literature ($V, I, J, {K_\mathrm{s}}, W_1$) photometry and spectroscopy, to calibrate the zero point of the Period-Luminosity and Period-Wesenheit relations of classical and type II Cepheids, and the near-infrared Period-Luminosity, Period-Luminosity-Metallicity and optical Luminosity-Metallicity relations of RR Lyrae stars. In this contribution we briefly summarise results obtained by fitting th…
The Galactic Bulge exploration I.: The period-absolute\,magnitude-metallicity relations for RR~Lyrae stars for $G_{\rm BP}$, $V$, $G$, $G_{\rm RP}$, $I$, $J$, $H$, and $K_{\rm s}$ passbands using $Gaia$ DR3 parallaxes
Measurements of [Fe/H] and radial velocity are presented for 89 RR Lyrae (RRL) candidates within 6 kpc of the Sun. After removal of two suspected non-RRL, these stars were added to an existing database, which yielded 464 RRL with [Fe/H] on a homogeneous scale. Using data from the Gaia satellite (Data Release 2), we calculated the positions and space velocities for this sample. These data confirm the existence of a thin-disc of RRL with [alpha/Fe] ~ solar. The majority of the halo RRL with large total energies have near zero angular momenta about the Z axis. Kinematically these stars closely re…
Hide and Seek with Gaia. Detectability of Predicted Thin-Disc Metal-Rich RR Lyrae Binaries in Gaia DR3 and DR4
Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona（巴塞罗那大学宇宙科学研究所）；Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院天文学系）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University（莫纳什大学物理与天文学院）；ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery – OzGrav（ARC引力波发现卓越中心-OzGrav）；INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri（意大利国家天体物理研究所阿切特里天文台）；Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge（剑桥大学天文学研究所）；Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata（罗马托维加塔大学物理系）；INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma（意大利国家天体物理研究所罗马天文台）；Departamento de Astronomía, Instituto de Física, Universidad de la República（乌拉圭共和国大学天文学系、物理研究所）
Photometric metallicity of Galactic RR Lyrae stars in the Gaia DR3 era
University of Delhi（德里大学）；Indian Institute of Astrophysics（印度天体物理研究所）；Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics（大学间天文与天体物理中心）；University of Petroleum and Energy Studies（石油与能源大学）
The Gaia second Data Release (DR2) presents a first mapping of full-sky RR Lyrae stars and Cepheids observed by the spacecraft during the initial 22 months of science operations. The Specific Object Study (SOS) pipeline, developed to validate and fully characterise Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars (SOS Cep&RRL) observed by Gaia, has been presented in the documentation and papers accompanying the Gaia first Data Release. Here we describe how the SOS pipeline was modified to allow for processing the Gaia multiband (G, G_BP and G_RP) time series photometry of all-sky candidate variables and produce sp…
We combine observed metallicity, optical and infrared magnitudes with evolutionary and pulsation models to derive average luminosities for 156 single-mode RR Lyrae stars. These luminosities are compared with those obtained from the Gaia EDR3 parallaxes, and found in excellent agreement with the high accuracy subsample (62 stars, with relative parallax errors less than 2%). With the temperature and metallicity scale used, no parallax shift seems to be necessary when alpha-enhanced evolutionary models are employed. Some 10% of the sample shows curious `distance keeping' between the evolutionary …
We present new photometry and analysis of the twelve variable stars (nine RR Lyrae, three SX Phoenicis) belonging to the Sagittarius globular cluster Arp 2. Of the nine RR Lyrae stars in the cluster, eight are RRab and one is RRc. From the RRab stars, we determined a mean period of $\langle P_{ab}\rangle=0.581\pm0.047$ days, where the error is the standard error of the mean. This places Arp 2 at the border between the Oosterhoff I and Oosterhoff-Int clusters. Using the $V$-band data from the RR Lyrae stars, a distance modulus of $(m-M)_0=17.24\pm0.17$ was determined. From the $I$-band data, we…
The second data release of the Gaia mission includes an advance catalog of variable stars. The classification of these stars are based on sparse photometry from the first 22 months of the mission. We set out to investigate the purity and completeness of the all-sky Gaia classification results with the help of the continuous light curves of the observed targets from the Kepler and K2 missions, focusing specifically on RR Lyrae and Cepheid pulsators, outside the Galactic Bulge region. We crossmatched the Gaia identifications with the observations collected by the Kepler space telescope. We inspe…
We present a sample of 135,873 RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) with precise photometric-metallicity and distance estimates from our newly calibrated $P-ϕ_{31}-R_{21}-$[Fe/H]/$P-R_{21}-$[Fe/H] and $G$ band absolute magnitude-metallicity relations. The $P-ϕ_{31}-R_{21}-$[Fe/H] and $P-R_{21}-$[Fe/H] relations for type RRab and type RRc stars are obtained from nearly 2700 Gaia-identified RRLs with precise $ϕ_{31}$ and $R_{21}$ measurements from the light curves and metallicity estimates from spectroscopy. Using 236 nearby RRLs with accurate distances estimated from parallax measurements with Gaia EDR3, new …
We present a comparison of the Gaia DR1 samples of pulsating variable stars - Cepheids and RR Lyrae type - with the OGLE Collection of Variable Stars aiming at the characterization of the Gaia mission performance in the stellar variability domain. Out of 575 Cepheids and 2322 RR Lyrae candidates from the Gaia DR1 samples located in the OGLE footprint in the sky, 559 Cepheids and 2302 RR Lyrae stars are genuine pulsators of these types. The number of misclassified stars is low indicating reliable performance of the Gaia data pipeline. The completeness of the Gaia DR1 samples of Cepheids and RR …
The second Gaia data release is expected to contain data products from about 22 months of observation. Based on these data, we aim to provide an advance publication of a full-sky Gaia map of RR Lyrae stars. Although comprehensive, these data still contain a significant fraction of sources which are insufficiently sampled for Fourier series decomposition of the periodic light variations. The challenges in the identification of RR Lyrae candidates with (much) fewer than 20 field-of-view transits are described. General considerations of the results, their limitations, and interpretation are prese…
We present photometry of 30 Galactic RR Lyrae variables taken with HST WFC3/IR for the Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. These measurements form the base of the distance ladder measurements that comprise a pure Population II base to a measurement of Ho at an accuracy of 3%. These data are taken with the same instrument and filter (F160W) as our observations of RR Lyrae stars in external galaxies so as to to minimize sources of systematic error in our calibration of the extragalactic distance scale. We calculate mean magnitudes based on one to three measurements for each RR Lyrae star using star…
We present multi-epoch infrared photometry in the $K_s$-band for 74 bright RR Lyrae variable stars tied directly to the 2MASS photometric system. We systematize additional $K$-band photometry from the literature to the 2MASS system and combine it to obtain photometry for 146 RR Lyrae stars on a consistent, modern system. A set of outlier stars in the literature photometry is identified and discussed. Reddening estimates for each star were gathered from the literature and combined to provide an estimate of the interstellar absorption affecting each star, and we find excellent agreement with ano…
Pulsating stars, such as Cepheids, Miras, and RR Lyrae stars, are important distance indicators and calibrators of the "cosmic distance ladder", and yet their period-luminosity-metallicity (PLZ) relations are still constrained using simple statistical methods that cannot take full advantage of available data. To enable optimal usage of data provided by the Gaia mission, we present a probabilistic approach that simultaneously constrains parameters of PLZ relations and uncertainties in Gaia parallax measurements. We demonstrate this approach by constraining PLZ relations of type $ab$ RR Lyrae st…
The GAIA satellite is likely to observe thousands of RR Lyrae stars within a small spectral window, between 8470A and 8750A, at a resolution of 11,500. In order to derive the metallicity of RR Lyrae stars from Gaia, we have obtained numerous spectra of RR Lyrae stars at a resolution of 35,000 with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 m echelle spectrograph. We have correlated the Ca II triplet line strengths with metallicity as derived from Fe II abundances, analogous to Preston's (1959) use of the Ca II K line to estimate the metallicity of RR Lyrae stars. The Ca II line at 8498A is the least ble…
Testing models for fully and partially stripped low-mass stars with Gaia: Implications for hot subdwarfs, binary RR Lyrae, and black hole impostors
California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）；Monash University（莫纳什大学）；Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery（澳大利亚研究理事会引力波发现卓越中心）；Institut de Ciéncies del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona（巴塞罗那宇宙科学研究所，巴塞罗那大学）；Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam（波茨坦大学物理与天文学研究所）；Dpto. Química “Prof. José Carlos Vílchez Martín”, Facultad de CC Experimentales, Universidad de Huelva（韦尔瓦大学实验科学学院“何塞·卡洛斯·比爾切·马丁”化学系）；Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院天文研究所）；Instituto de Física y Astronomía, Universidad de Valparaíso（瓦尔帕莱索大学物理与天文学研究所）
We present results of the analysis of 70 RR Lyrae stars located in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Combining spectroscopically determined metallicity of these stars from the literature with precise periods from the OGLE III catalogue and multi-epoch $K_{\rm s}$ photometry from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC), we derive a new near-infrared period-luminosity-metallicity (${\rm PL_{K_{\rm s}}Z}$) relation for RR Lyrae variables. In order to fit the relation we use a fitting method developed specifically for this study. The zero-point of the relation is estimate…
Accurate metallicities of RR Lyrae are extremely important in constraining period-luminosity-metallicity relationships (PLZ), particularly in the near-infrared. We analyse 69 high-resolution spectra of Galactic RR Lyrae stars from the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). We measure metallicities of 58 of these RR Lyrae stars with typical uncertainties of 0.13 dex. All but one RR Lyrae in this sample has accurate (σ_parallax ~ 10%) parallax from Gaia. Combining these new high resolution spectroscopic abundances with similar determinations from the literature for 93 stars, we present new PLZ…
Probing the Milky Way Halo with RR Lyrae Stars from Gaia Data Release 3
INAF - Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna（意大利国家天体物理研究所博洛尼亚天文台与空间科学观测站）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia-Universitá di Bologna（博洛尼亚大学物理与天文系）；Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts（卢塞恩应用科学与艺术大学）；TOELT LLC（TOELT有限责任公司）
Context. The multiplicity of classical Cepheids (CCs) and RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) is still imperfectly known, particularly for RRLs. Aims. In order to complement the close-in short orbital period systems presented in Paper I, our aim is to detect the wide, spatially resolved companions of the targets of our reference samples of Galactic CCs and RRLs. Methods. Angularly resolved common proper motion pairs were detected using a simple progressive selection algorithm to separate the most probable candidate companions from the unrelated field stars. Results. We found 27 resolved, high probability gr…
Classical Cepheids (CCs) and RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) are important classes of variable stars used as standard candles to estimate galactic and extragalactic distances. Their multiplicity is imperfectly known, particularly for RRLs. Astoundingly, to date only one RRL has convincingly been demonstrated to be a binary, TU UMa, out of tens of thousands of known RRLs. Our aim is to detect the binary and multiple stars present in a sample of Milky Way CCs and RRLs. In the present article, we combine the Hipparcos and Gaia DR2 positions to determine the mean proper motion of the targets, and we search …
