Distance determination for RAVE stars using stellar models

II. Most likely values assuming a standard stellar evolution scenario^*

¹ University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Ljubljana, Slovenia
e-mail: tomaz.zwitter@fmf.uni-lj.si
² Center of excellence SPACE-SI, Ljubljana, Slovenia
³ Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
⁴ Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing, PR China
⁵ INAF Astronomical Observatory of Padova, 36012 Asiago (VI), Italy
⁶ Observatoire de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
⁷ Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, UK
⁸ Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
⁹ Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
¹⁰ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
¹¹ Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA
¹² RSAA, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
¹³ John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
¹⁴ University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK
¹⁵ Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK
¹⁶ ARI, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁷ University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
¹⁸ Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
¹⁹ e2v Centre for Electronic Imaging, Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
²⁰ Anglo Australian Observatory, Sydney, Australia

Received: 3 May 2010
Accepted: 26 June 2010

Abstract

The RAdial Velocity Experiment (RAVE) is a spectroscopic survey of the Milky Way which already collected over 400000 spectra of  ~330000 different stars. We use the subsample of spectra with spectroscopically determined values of stellar parameters to determine the distances to these stars. The list currently contains 235064 high quality spectra which show no peculiarities and belong to 210872 different stars. The numbers will grow as the RAVE survey progresses. The public version of the catalog will be made available through the CDS services along with the ongoing RAVE public data releases.

The distances are determined with a method based on the work by Breddels et al. (2010, A&A, 511, A16). Here we assume that the star undergoes a standard stellar evolution and that its spectrum shows no peculiarities. The refinements include: the use of either of the three isochrone sets, a better account of the stellar ages and masses, use of more realistic errors of stellar parameter values, and application to a larger dataset. The derived distances of both dwarfs and giants match within  ~21% to the astrometric distances of Hipparcos stars and to the distances of observed members of open and globular clusters. Multiple observations of a fraction of RAVE stars show that repeatability of the derived distances is even better, with half of the objects showing a distance scatter of  ≲ 11%.

RAVE dwarfs are  ~300 pc from the Sun, and giants are at distances of 1 to 2 kpc, and up to 10 kpc. This places the RAVE dataset between the more local Geneva-Copenhagen survey and the more distant and fainter SDSS sample. As such it is ideal to address some of the fundamental questions of Galactic structure and evolution in the pre-Gaia era. Individual applications are left to separate papers, here we show that the full 6-dimensional information on position and velocity is accurate enough to discuss the vertical structure and kinematic properties of the thin and thick disks.