Kepler Pixel Project -- background RR Lyrae stars in the primary Kepler mission field of view
Adrienn Forr\'o, R\'obert Szab\'o, Attila B\'odi, and Korn\'el, Cs\'asz\'ar

TL;DR
This study used Kepler pixel data to discover 26 new faint RR Lyrae stars in the background of primary targets, providing high-precision light curves that reveal their pulsation properties and expand the known population.
Contribution
It presents the first detailed analysis of faint RR Lyrae stars using Kepler's high-cadence, precise photometry, increasing the known sample by 50% and offering new insights into their properties.
Findings
Discovered 26 new RR Lyrae stars in Kepler background pixels.
Provided four-year continuous light curves for these faint stars.
Confirmed that faint RR Lyrae share properties with brighter counterparts.
Abstract
In this paper we describe a project we initiated to investigate individual pixels in the downloaded Kepler apertures in order to find objects in the background of the main targets with variable brightness. In the first paper of this series we discovered and investigated 547 short-period eclipsing binaries (Bienias et al. 2021). Here we present the independent discovery of 26 new RR Lyrae stars in the Kepler background pixels obtained during the primary mission, and provide continuous and precise photometry for these objects. Twenty-one of these stars were already noted by Gaia or the Pan-STARRS survey. This new population of dominantly faint and distant RR Lyrae stars increases by 50% and complements nicely the 52 already known main target RR Lyrae stars in the original Kepler field. Despite their faintness, the four-year quasi-uninterrupted light curves of these stars allow an…
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