RR Lyrae Variables in Messier 53: Near-infrared Period-Luminosity Relations and the Calibration Using Gaia Early Data Release 3

Journal
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
•
Rejkuba, Marina
•
de Grijs, Richard
•
Yang, Soung-Chul
•
Herczeg, Gregory J.
•
•
Singh, Harinder P.
•
Kanbur, Shashi
•
Ngeow, Chow-Choong
DOI
Abstract
We present new near-infrared, JHKs, period-luminosity relations (PLRs) for RR Lyrae variables in the Messier 53 (M53 or NGC 5024) globular cluster. Multi-epoch JHKs 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 mode (RRc) variables. The JHKs-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 Ks-band PLR, ${K}_{s}=-2.303(0.063)\mathrm{log}P+15.212(0.016)$ ,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 ± 3 μas in Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), which increases to 22 ± 2 μas if the parallax corrections are applied. We also estimate a robust distance modulus, μM53 = 16.403 ± 0.024 (statistical) ± 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 ${\mathrm{PLZ}}_{{K}_{s}}$ relation, ${K}_{s}=-0.848(0.007)\,-2.320(0.006)\mathrm{log}P+0.166(0.011)[\mathrm{Fe}/{\rm{H}}]$ ,anchored with Gaia EDR3 distances and theoretically predicted relations, and to simultaneously estimate precise RR Lyrae-based distances to these globular clusters.
Volume
909
Issue
2
Start page
200
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0004-637X
Ads BibCode
2021ApJ...909..200B
Rights
open.access
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