Long-period maser-bearing Miras in the Galactic center: period-luminosity relations and extinction estimates

TL;DR

This study analyzes a sample of 370 Mira variables near the Galactic center to investigate their period-luminosity relations and extinction properties, revealing significant circumstellar reddening and similarities with LMC Miras despite metallicity differences.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the extinction laws and period-magnitude relations of Miras in the Galactic center, comparing them with those in the LMC and highlighting the effects of circumstellar material.

Findings

Wide range of circumstellar extinction values up to four magnitudes.

Circumstellar reddening laws are similar to those in the LMC.

MIR period-magnitude relations are affected by envelope emission.

Abstract

We establish a sample of 370 Mira variables that are likely near the Galactic center (GC). The sources have been selected from the OGLE and BAaDE surveys based on their sky coordinates, OGLE classifications, and BAaDE maser-derived line-of-sight velocities. As the distance to the GC is known to a high accuracy, this sample is a test bed for reddening and extinction studies toward the GC and in Mira envelopes. We calculated separate interstellar- and circumstellar-extinction values for individual sources, showing that there is a wide range of circumstellar extinction values (up to four magnitudes in the K$_s$ band) in the sample, and that circumstellar reddening is statistically different from interstellar reddening laws. Further, the reddening laws in the circumstellar environments of our sample and the circumstellar environments of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Miras are strikingly similar despite the different metallicities of the samples. Period-magnitude relations for the mid-infrared (MIR) WISE and MSX bands are also explored, and in the WISE bands we compare these to period-magnitude relationships derived from Miras in the LMC as it is important to compare these LMC relations to those in a higher metallicity environment. Emission from the envelope itself may contaminate MIR magnitudes altering the relations, especially for sources with thick envelopes.