The Astrophysical Journal, 807:127 (17pp), 2015 July 10 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/807/2/127 © 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. NEW NEAR-INFRARED PERIOD–LUMINOSITY–METALLICITY RELATIONS FOR RR LYRAE STARS AND THE OUTLOOK FOR GAIA* T. Muraveva1, M. Palmer2, G. Clementini1, X. Luri2, M.-R. L. Cioni3,4,5, M. I. Moretti1,6, M. Marconi7, V. Ripepi7, and S. Rubele8 1 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, I-40127, Bologna, Italy;
[email protected] 2 Dept. d’Astronomia i Meteorologia, Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB), Martí Franquès 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain 3 Universität Potsdam, Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, D-14476 Potsdam, Germany 4 Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, D-14482 Potsdam, Germany 5 University of Hertfordshire, Physics Astronomy and Mathematics, College Lane, Hatfeild AL10 9AB, UK 6 Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, I-56126 Pisa, Italy 7 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Salita Moiariello 16, I-80131, Napoli, Italy 8 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 5, I-35122, Padova, Italy Received 2015 April 7; accepted 2015 May 21; published 2015 July 7 ABSTRACT We present results of the analysis of 70 RR Lyrae stars located in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Combining the spectroscopically determined metallicity of these stars from the literature with precise periods from the OGLE III catalog and multi-epoch Ks photometry from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system, we – – ( ) fi derive a new near-infrared period luminosity metallicity PLZKs relation for RR Lyrae variables.