Evidence for spatially-correlated $Gaia$ parallax errors in the $Kepler$ field

Abstract

We present evidence for a spatially-dependent systematic error in the first data release of $Gaia$ parallaxes based on comparisons to asteroseismic parallaxes in the $Kepler$ field, and present a parametrized model of the angular dependence of these systematics. We report an error of $0.059_{-0.004}^{+0.004}$mas on scales of 0.3deg, which decreases for larger scales to become $0.011_{-0.004}^{+0.006}$mas at 8deg. This is consistent with the $\sim 2\%$ zeropoint offset for the whole sample discussed by Huber et al., and is compatible with the effect predicted by the $Gaia$ team. Our results are robust to dust prescriptions and choices in temperature scales used to calculate asteroseismic parallaxes. We also do not find evidence for significant differences in the signal when using red clump versus red giant stars. Our approach allows us to quantify and map the correlations in an astrophysically interesting field, resulting in a parametrized model of the spatial systematics that can be used to construct a covariance matrix for any work that relies upon TGAS parallaxes.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 22 pages, 18 figures

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