On the use of field RR Lyrae as Galactic probes

VII. Light curve templates in the LSST photometric system

¹ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Via Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
² Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Calle Via Lactea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
³ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, Avenida Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez, s/n, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁴ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Salita Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37240, USA
⁶ Konkoly Observatory, HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, MTA Centre of Excellence, 1121 Konkoly Thege Miklós út 15–17, Budapest, Hungary
⁷ ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Physics, 1117 Pázmány Péter sétány 1/a, Budapest, Hungary

Received: 3 June 2024
Accepted: 15 July 2024

Abstract

Context. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will start operations in 2025. During its first two years, too few visits per target per band will be available, meaning that the mean magnitude measurements of variable stars will not be precise and thus standard candles such as RR Lyrae (RRL) will not be usable. Light curve templates (LCTs) can be adopted to estimate the mean magnitude of a variable star with a few magnitude measurements, provided that their period (plus the amplitude and reference epoch, depending on how the LCT is applied) is known. The LSST will provide precise RRL periods within the first six months, enabling exploitation of RRLs if LCTs are available.

Aims. We aim to build LCTs in the LSST bands to enhance the early science with LSST. Using them will provide a one- to two-year advantage with respect to the classical approach concerning distance measurements.

Methods. We collected grί-band data from the ZTF survey and z-band data from DECam to build the LCTs of RRLs. We also adopted synthetic grίz band data in the LSST system from pulsation models, plus SDSS, Gaia and OGLE photometry, inspecting the light amplitude ratios in different photometric systems to provide useful conversions to apply the LCTs.

Results. We have built LCTs of RRLs in the grίz bands of the LSST photometric system; for the z band, we could build only fun damental mode RRL LCTs. We quantitatively demonstrated that LCTs built with ZTF and DECam data can be adopted on the LSST photometric system. The LCTs will decrease the uncertainty on distance estimates of RRLs by a factor of at least two with respect to a simple average of the available measurements. Finally, within our tests, we have found a brand new behavior of amplitude ratios in the Large Magellanic Cloud.