Distance Determination of RR Lyrae Stars AE Leo, AT Vir, and HY Com

Volume 50 number 1 (2022)

Download this article (pdf)

Cody Soper
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ; soperc46@students.rowan.edu
Christopher Tenenbaum
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ; soperc46@students.rowan.edu
Adam Lounsbery
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ; soperc46@students.rowan.edu
Jarred Rheiner
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ; soperc46@students.rowan.edu
David Klassen
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ; soperc46@students.rowan.edu

Abstract

We present the results of our observations and analyses of three RR Lyrae variable stars: AT Vir, HY Com, and AE Leo, in order to test period-luminosity relationships derived from stellar models. We have measured the periods of these stars to be 0.52359, 0.44898, and 0.63021 days, respectively, closely matching previous work. Period-Luminosity-Metallicity (PLM) relationships were used to calculate new distance values which averaged 1331 ± 41 pc, 957 ± 49 pc, and 2480 ± 76 pc for AT Vir, HY Com, and AE Leo, respectively. These measurements are compared with Gaia distances calculated from EDR3 parallax angles. Our results appear to generally support the PLM relationship with distance differences less than 2σ.