Metallicity of Galactic RR Lyrae from Optical and Infrared Light Curves: II. Period-Fourier-Metallicity Relations for First Overtone RR Lyrae

TL;DR

This paper develops new optical and infrared period-Fourier-metallicity relations for first overtone RR Lyrae stars, enabling accurate metallicity estimates from light curves in various observational conditions.

Contribution

It introduces the first infrared period-$_{31}$-[Fe/H] relations for RRc stars, calibrated over a broad metallicity range, with improved accuracy over previous models.

Findings

Optical relation reproduces spectroscopic metallicities with 0.30 dex dispersion.

Infrared relation underestimates [Fe/H] near solar metallicity but performs well at lower metallicities.

Relations validated on Sculptor dSph and Galactic globular clusters, within ±0.08 dex of spectroscopic values.

Abstract

We present new period-$\phi_{31}$-[Fe/H] relations for first overtone RRL stars (RRc), calibrated over a broad range of metallicities ($-2.5 < \textrm{[Fe/H]}< 0.0$) utilizing the largest currently available set of Galactic halo field RRL with homogeneous spectroscopic metallicities. Our relations are defined in the optical (ASAS-SN $V$-band) and, inaugurally, in the infrared (WISE $W1$ and $W2$ bands). Our $V$-band relation can reproduce individual RRc spectroscopic metallicities with a dispersion of 0.30 dex over the entire metallicity range of our calibrator sample (an RMS smaller than what we found for other relations in literature including non-linear terms). Our infrared relation has a similar dispersion in the low and intermediate metallicity range ($\textrm{[Fe/H]} < -0.5$) but tends to underestimate the [Fe/H] abundance around solar metallicity. We tested our relations by measuring both the metallicity of the Sculptor dSph and a sample of Galactic globular clusters, rich in both RRc and RRab stars. The average metallicity we obtain for the combined RRL sample in each cluster is within $\pm 0.08$ dex of their spectroscopic metallicities. The infrared and optical relations presented in this work will enable deriving reliable photometric RRL metallicities in conditions where spectroscopic measurements are not feasible; e.g., in distant galaxies or reddened regions (observed with upcoming Extremely Large Telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope), or in the large sample of new RRL that will be discovered in large-area time-domain photometric surveys (such as LSST and the Roman space telescope).