The parallax zero point offset from Gaia EDR3 data

TL;DR

This paper investigates the Gaia EDR3 parallax zero point offset, analyzing its spatial and magnitude dependence, and proposes correction methods validated on independent stellar samples to improve distance measurements.

Contribution

It provides an independent analysis of Gaia EDR3 parallax zero point offset focusing on spatial and magnitude corrections, and offers a practical correction recipe.

Findings

Mean parallax offset before correction is about -39 μas.

Corrected parallaxes align with independent measurements within uncertainties.

Photometric parallaxes for Cepheids may be underestimated by about 5%.

Abstract

The second data release of \it Gaia \rm revealed a parallax zero point offset of $-0.029$~mas based on quasars. The value depended on the position on the sky, and also likely on magnitude and colour. The offset and its dependence on other parameters inhibited an improvement in the local distance scale using e.g. the Cepheid and RR Lyrae period-luminosity relations. Analysis of the recent \it Gaia \rm Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) reveals a mean parallax zero point offset of $-0.021$~mas based on quasars. The \it Gaia \rm team addresses the parallax zero point offset in detail and proposes a recipe to correct for it, based on ecliptic latitude, $G$-band magnitude, and colour information. This paper is a completely independent investigation into this issue focussing on the spatial dependence of the correction based on quasars and the magnitude dependence based on wide binaries. The spatial and magnitude corrections are connected to each other in the overlap region between $17 < G < 19$. The spatial correction is presented at several spatial resolutions based on the HEALPix formalism. The colour dependence of the parallax offset is unclear and in any case secondary to the spatial and magnitude dependence. The spatial and magnitude corrections are applied to two samples of brighter sources, namely a sample of $\sim$100 stars with independent trigonometric parallax measurements from \it HST \rm data, and a sample of 75 classical cepheids using photometric parallaxes. The mean offset between the observed GEDR3 parallax and the independent trigonometric parallax (excluding outliers) is about $-39$~\muas, and after applying the correction it is consistent with being zero. For the classical cepheid sample it is suggested that the photometric parallaxes may be underestimated by about 5\%.