Charting Unexplored Dwarf Galaxy Territory With RR Lyrae

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that groups of RR Lyrae stars can be used to discover faint, low surface brightness dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way's halo, especially in regions previously difficult to survey.

Contribution

It introduces a proof-of-concept method using RR Lyrae groups for detecting dwarf galaxies at large distances and low surface brightnesses, expanding the search parameter space.

Findings

A friends-of-friends search can identify dwarf galaxies brighter than M_V = -3.2 mag.

Existing RR Lyrae catalogs are highly incomplete beyond 50 kpc.

Future surveys like LSST will enable comprehensive dwarf galaxy census using RR Lyrae.

Abstract

Observational bias against finding Milky Way (MW) dwarf galaxies at low Galactic latitudes (b < 20 deg) and at low surface brightnesses (fainter than 29 mag arcsec^-2, in the V-band) currently limits our understanding of the faintest limits of the galaxy luminosity function. This paper is a proof-of-concept that groups of two or more RR Lyrae stars reveal MW dwarf galaxies at d > 50 kpc in these unmined regions of parameter space, with only modest contamination from interloper groups when large halo structures are excluded. For example, a friends-of-friends (FOF) search with a linking length of 500 pc could reveal dwarf galaxies more luminous than M_V = -3.2 mag and with surface brightnesses as faint as 31 mag arcsec^-2 (or even fainter, depending on RR Lyrae specific frequency). Although existing public RR Lyrae catalogs are highly incomplete at d > 50 kpc and/or include <1% of the MW halo's volume, a FOF search reveals two known dwarfs (Bootes I and Sextans) and two dwarf candidate groups possibly worthy of follow-up. PanSTARRS 1 (PS1) may catalog RR Lyrae to 100 kpc which would include ~15% of predicted MW dwarf galaxies. Groups of PS1 RR Lyrae should therefore reveal very low surface brightness and low Galactic latitude dwarfs within its footprint, if they exist. With sensitivity to RR Lyrae to d >600 kpc, LSST is the only planned survey that will be both wide-field and deep enough to use RR Lyrae to definitively measure the Milky Way's dwarf galaxy census to extremely low surface brightnesses, and through the Galactic plane.