Abstract
Understanding the structure, formation and evolution of the Galactic Bulge requires the proper determination of spatial metallicity gradients in both the radial and vertical directions. RR Lyrae pulsators, known to be excellent distance indicators, may hold the key to determining these gradients. Jurcsik and Kovacs (A&A 312:111, 1996) has shown that RR Lyrae light curves and the phase difference of their Fourier decomposition, ϕ 31, can be used to estimate photometric metallicities. The existence of galactic bulge metallicity gradients is a currently debated topic that would help pinpoint the Galaxy’s formation and evolution. A recent study of the OGLE-III Galactic Bulge RR Lyrae Population by Pietrukowicz et al. (ApJ 750:169, 2012) suggests that the spatial distribution is uniform. We investigate how small a gradient would be detectable within the current S/N levels of the present data set, given the random and systematic errors associated with the derivation of a photometric metallicity versus spatial position relationship.
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References
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Igor Soszynski and Marcio Catelan for providing necessary fit and calibrations errors. This work was carried out, in whole or in part through the Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training (GREAT-ITN) network. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme ([FP7/2007–2013]) under grant agreement n∘—264895.
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Sans Fuentes, S.A., De Ridder, J. (2015). The Metallicity Gradient of the Old Galactic Bulge Population. In: Miglio, A., Eggenberger, P., Girardi, L., Montalbán, J. (eds) Asteroseismology of Stellar Populations in the Milky Way. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 39. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10993-0_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10993-0_16
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