{"title":"GAIA PARALLAX ZERO POINT FROM RR LYRAE STARS","authors":"A. Gould, J. Kollmeier","doi":"10.5303/JKAS.2017.50.1.1","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Like Hipparcos, Gaia is designed to give absolute parallaxes, independent of any astrophysical reference system. And indeed, Gaia’s internal zero-point error for parallaxes is likely to be smaller than any individual parallax error. Nevertheless, due in part to mechanical issues of unknown origin, there are many astrophysical questions for which the parallax zero-point error σ(π₀) will be the fundamentally limiting constraint. These include the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galactic Center. We show that by using the photometric parallax estimates for RR Lyrae stars (RRL) within 8kpc, via the ultra-precise infrared period-luminosity relation, one can independently determine a hyper-precise value for π₀. Despite their paucity relative to bright quasars, we show that RRL are competitive due to their order-of-magnitude improved parallax precision for each individual object relative to bright quasars. We show that this method is mathematically robust and well-approximated by analytic formulae over a wide range of relevant distances.","PeriodicalId":49994,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society","volume":"26 1","pages":"1-5"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2016-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5303/JKAS.2017.50.1.1","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
Like Hipparcos, Gaia is designed to give absolute parallaxes, independent of any astrophysical reference system. And indeed, Gaia’s internal zero-point error for parallaxes is likely to be smaller than any individual parallax error. Nevertheless, due in part to mechanical issues of unknown origin, there are many astrophysical questions for which the parallax zero-point error σ(π₀) will be the fundamentally limiting constraint. These include the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galactic Center. We show that by using the photometric parallax estimates for RR Lyrae stars (RRL) within 8kpc, via the ultra-precise infrared period-luminosity relation, one can independently determine a hyper-precise value for π₀. Despite their paucity relative to bright quasars, we show that RRL are competitive due to their order-of-magnitude improved parallax precision for each individual object relative to bright quasars. We show that this method is mathematically robust and well-approximated by analytic formulae over a wide range of relevant distances.
期刊介绍:
JKAS is an international scientific journal publishing papers in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics. All manuscripts are subject to the scrutiny of referees. Manuscripts submitted to JKAS must comply with the ethics policy of JKAS. Six regular issues are published each year on February 28, April 30, June 30, August 31, October 31, and December 31. One year''s issues compose one volume.