Photometric metallicity of Galactic RR Lyrae stars in the Gaia DR3 era

Abstract

We present a new, calibrated $G$-band relationship between pulsation period $P$, Fourier parameter ${\varphi }_{31}$, and metallicity [Fe/H] for galactic RR Lyrae stars from the Gaia survey. A set of 72 fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars were identified for deriving the relation in the $G$-band, after visual examination of their light curves. Unlike recent large-scale calibrations, our relation prioritizes calibration purity by anchoring exclusively to a homogeneously analyzed sample of high-resolution spectroscopic metallicities from the literature. Our best fit relation is $\text{[Fe/H]}=(-6.93\pm 0.58)-(6.04\pm 0.37)P+(1.65\pm 0.11){\varphi }_{31}$. We compare the [Fe/H] predicted by our relation for the stars in our calibration sample with that obtained from previously established relations in the $G$-band using different approaches. Our calibrated $G$-band $P$-${\varphi }_{31}$-[Fe/H] relationship demonstrates high reliability when validated against spectroscopic data, achieving a negligible bias of $0.00$ dex and an empirical RMS scatter of 0.26 dex. Furthermore, by applying an Orthogonal Distance Regression (ODR) routine that fully propagates parameter covariance, we establish a mathematically strict empirical baseline whose theoretical uncertainties perfectly align with this observed dispersion. We find that the inclusion of the $R_{21}$ Fourier parameter offers no significant improvement in metallicity estimation. Comparisons with literature confirm that our linear relation aligns closely with other Gaia DR3-based studies, while offering improved precision over older DR2-based relations.

Accepted for publication in Galaxies