Open AccessHarmonizing the RR Lyrae and clump distance scales – stretching the short distance scale to intermediate ranges?
Author(s) -
Popowski Piotr
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04046.x
Subject(s) - rr lyrae variable , physics , astrophysics , cosmic distance ladder , distance modulus , absolute magnitude , red clump , metallicity , large magellanic cloud , globular cluster , astronomy , stars , cepheid variable , apparent magnitude , galaxy , redshift
I explore the consequences of making the RR Lyrae and clump giant distance scales consistent in the solar neighbourhood, Galactic bulge and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). I employ two major assumptions: (i) that the absolute magnitude–metallicity, M V (RR)–[Fe/H], relation for RR Lyrae stars is universal, and (ii) that absolute I magnitudes of clump giants, M I (RC), in Baade's Window are known (e.g. can be inferred from the local Hipparcos ‐based calibration or theoretical modelling). A comparison between the solar neighbourhood and Baade's Window sets M V (RR) at [Fe/H]=−1.6 in the range (0.59±0.05, 0.70±0.05), somewhat brighter than the statistical parallax solution. More luminous RR Lyrae stars imply younger globular clusters, which would be in better agreement with the conclusions from the currently favoured stellar evolution and cosmological models. A comparison between Baade's Window and the LMC sets M LMC(RC) I in the range (−0.33±0.09,−0.53±0.09). The distance modulus to the LMC is μ LMC ∈(18.24±0.08,18.44±0.07). Unlike M LMC(RC) I , this range in μ LMC does not depend on the adopted value of the dereddened LMC clump magnitude, I LMC(RC) 0 . I argue that the currently available information is insufficient to select the correct distance scale with high confidence.