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arXiv · 1402.4449

Mid-Infrared Period--Luminosity Relations of RR Lyrae Stars Derived from the AllWISE Data Release

Christopher R. Klein·Joseph W. Richards·Nathaniel R. Butler·Joshua S. Bloom
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Abstract

We use photometry from the recent AllWISE Data Release of the Wide-field In-frared Survey Explorer (WISE) of 129 calibration stars, combined with prior distances obtained from the established $M_V-$[Fe/H] relation and Hubble Space Telescope trigonometric parallax, to derive mid-infrared period--luminosity relations for RR Lyrae pulsating variable stars. We derive relations in the W1, W2, and W3 wavebands (3.4, 4.6, and 12 {\mu}m, respectively), and for each of the two main RR Lyrae sub-types (RRab and RRc). We report an error on the period--luminosity relation slope for RRab stars of 0.2. We also fit posterior distances for the calibration catalog and find a median fractional distance error of 0.8 per cent.

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Christopher R. Klein, Joseph W. Richards, Nathaniel R. Butler, Joshua S. Bloom. 2014-02-18. Mid-Infrared Period--Luminosity Relations of RR Lyrae Stars Derived from the AllWISE Data Release. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slu031

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