2015/07/28 by P. Karczmarek, G. Pietrzyński, W. Gieren +6 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-6256/150/3/90
Accepted for publication in AJ. 14 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables
arxiv created 2015/07/28 · arxiv updated 2015/09/16
We obtained single-phase near-infrared (NIR) magnitudes in the J- and K-band for a sample of 33 RR Lyrae stars in the Carina dSph galaxy. Applying different theoretical and empirical calibrations of the NIR period-luminosity-metallicity relation for RR Lyrae stars, we find consistent results and obtain a true, reddening-corrected distance modulus of 20.118 ± 0.017 (statistical) ± 0.11 (systematic) mag. This value is in excellent agreement with the results obtained in the context of the Araucaria Project from NIR photometry of Red Clump stars (20.165 ± 0.015) and Tip of Red Giant Branch (20.09 ± 0.03 ± 0.12 mag in J-band, 20.14 ± 0.04 ± 0.14 mag in K-band), as well as with most independent distance determinations to this galaxy. The near-infrared RR Lyrae method proved to be a reliable tool for accurate distance determination at the 5 percent level or better, particularly for galaxies and globular clusters that lack young standard candles, like Cepheids.