Absolute Magnitudes and Colors of RR Lyrae stars in DECam Passbands from Photometry of the Globular Cluster M5

TL;DR

This paper derives empirical period-luminosity and color relationships for RR Lyrae stars in the DECam passbands using globular cluster M5 data, enhancing their use as standard candles and reddening indicators.

Contribution

It provides new empirical P-L and color calibrations for RR Lyrae stars in DECam filters, improving distance and extinction measurements.

Findings

P-L relationships are well constrained in riz bands with low dispersion.

Color at minimum light is a reliable indicator for interstellar extinction.

Color dispersion at minimum light can be reduced below 0.016 magnitudes when accounting for period trends.

Abstract

We characterize the absolute magnitudes and colors of RR Lyrae stars in the globular cluster M5 in the ugriz filter system of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam). We provide empirical Period-Luminosity (P-L) relationships in all 5 bands based on 47 RR Lyrae stars of the type ab and 14 stars of the type c. The P-L relationships were found to be better constrained for the fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars in the riz passbands, with dispersion of 0.03, 0.02 and 0.02 magnitudes, respectively. The dispersion of the color at minimum light was found to be small, supporting the use of this parameter as a means to obtain accurate interstellar extinctions along the line of sight up to the distance of the RR Lyrae star. We found a trend of color at minimum light with pulsational period that, if taken into account, brings the dispersion in color at minimum light to < 0.016 magnitudes for the (r-i), (i-z), and (r-z) colors. These calibrations will be very useful for using RR Lyrae stars from DECam observations as both standard candles for distance determinations and color standards for reddening measurements.