2012/05/01 by Daniel J. Majaess, D. Majaess, D. Turner +5 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #History and Developments in Astronomy #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/752/1/l10
To appear in ApJL
arxiv created 2012/05/01 · openalex publication_date 2012/05/22 · arxiv updated 2015/06/05 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
RR Lyrae variables and the stellar constituents of globular clusters are employed to establish the cosmic distance scale and age of the universe. However, photometry for RR Lyrae variables in the globular clusters M3, M15, M54, M92, NGC2419, and NGC6441 exhibit a dependence on the clustercentric distance. For example, variables and stars positioned near the crowded high-surface brightness cores of the clusters may suffer from photometric contamination, which invariably affects a suite of inferred parameters (e.g., distance, color excess, absolute magnitude, etc.). The impetus for this study is to mitigate the propagation of systematic uncertainties by increasing awareness of the pernicious impact of contaminated and radial-dependent photometry.