Newly discovered RR lyrae stars in the SDSS-Pan-STARRS1-catalina footprint

M. A. Abbas, E. K. Grebel, N. F. Martin, W. S. Burgett, H. Flewelling, R. J. Wainscoat

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    We present the detection of 6371 RR Lyrae (RRL) stars distributed across ̃14 000 deg2 of the sky from the combined data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1 (Pan-STARRS1 or PS1), and the second photometric catalogue from the Catalina Survey (CSDR2), out of these, ̃2021 RRL stars (̃572 RRab and 1449 RRc) are new discoveries. The RRL stars have heliocentric distances in the 4-28 kpc distance range. RRL-like colour cuts from the SDSS and variability cuts from the PS1 are used to cull our candidate list.We then use the CSDR2 multi-epoch data to refine our sample. Periods were measured using the analysis of variance technique while the classification process is performed with the template fitting method in addition to the visual inspection of the light curves. A cross-match of our RRL star discoveries with previous published catalogues of RRL stars yields completeness levels of ̃50 per cent for both RRab and RRc stars, and an efficiency of ̃99 and ̃87 per cent for RRab and RRc stars, respectively. We show that our method for selecting RRL stars allows us to recover halo structures. The full lists of all the RRL stars are made publicly available.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)1230-1242
    Number of pages13
    JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Volume441
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jun 2014

    Keywords

    • Galaxy: evolution
    • Galaxy: formation
    • Galaxy: halo
    • Galaxy: structure
    • Stars: variables:RR lyrae

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Astronomy and Astrophysics
    • Space and Planetary Science

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