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Muraveva, T, Subramanian, S, Clementini, G, Cioni, M-RL, Palmer, M, van Loon, JT, Moretti, MI, de Grijs, R, Molinaro, R, Ripepi, V, Marconi, M, Emerson, J and Ivanov, VD (2018) The VMC survey - XXVI. Structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from RR Lyrae stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 473 (3). pp. 3131-3146. ISSN 0035-8711
vanloon_mnras_27sep2017.pdf - Accepted Version
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Abstract
We present results from the analysis of 2997 fundamental mode RR Lyrae variables located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). For these objects, near-infrared time series photometry from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC) and visual light curves from the OGLE IV (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment IV) survey are available. In this study, the multi-epoch Ks-band VMC photometry was used for the first time to derive intensity-averaged magnitudes of the SMC RR Lyrae stars. We determined individual distances to the RR Lyrae stars from the near-infrared period–absolute magnitude–metallicity (PMKsZ) relation, which has some advantages in comparison with the visual absolute magnitude–metallicity (MV–[Fe/H]) relation, such as a smaller dependence of the luminosity on interstellar extinction, evolutionary effects and metallicity. The distances we have obtained were used to study the three-dimensional structure of the SMC. The distribution of the SMC RR Lyrae stars is found to be ellipsoidal. The actual line-of-sight depth of the SMC is in the range 1–10 kpc, with an average depth of 4.3 ± 1.0 kpc. We found that RR Lyrae stars in the eastern part of the SMC are affected by interactions of the Magellanic Clouds. However, we do not see a clear bimodality observed for red clump stars, in the distribution of RR Lyrae stars
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2017 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Surveys, stars, variables, RR Lyrae, galaxies, Magellanic Clouds, galaxies, structure |
Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy > QB460 Astrophysics Q Science > QB Astronomy > QB799 Stars |
Divisions: | Faculty of Natural Sciences > School of Chemical and Physical Sciences |
Depositing User: | Symplectic |
Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2017 09:53 |
Last Modified: | 18 Mar 2019 14:22 |
URI: | https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/4067 |