Standard Galactic Field RR Lyrae II: A Gaia DR2 calibration of the period-Wesenheit-metallicity relation

Abstract

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 $UBV{R}_c{I}_c$ and Gaia $G,BP,RP$; near-infrared $JH{K}_s$; 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 been predicted by theoretical relations, can now be measured in all passbands. The scatter in the PLZ relations is on the order of 0.2 mag, and is still dominated by uncertainties in the parallaxes. As a consistency check of our PLZ relations, we also measure the distance modulus to the globular cluster M4, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and our results are in excellent agreement with estimates from previous studies.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 15 pages, 14 figures

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• The use of double-mode RR Lyrae stars as robust distance and metallicity indicators
• New Near-Infrared Period-Luminosity-Metallicity Relations for Galactic RR Lyrae Stars Based on Gaia EDR3 Parallaxes
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• Distances to Local Group Galaxies via Population II, Stellar Distance Indicators I: The Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal
• Exploring the Sagittarius stream with RR Lyrae Stars from Gaia Data Release 3
• A joint 1% calibration of the RR Lyrae & type-II Cepheid Leavitt laws yields homogeneous distances to 93 Galactic globular clusters
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