Željko Ivezić et al. 2000 The Astronomical Journal 120 963 doi:10.1086/301455
Željko Ivezić1, Josh Goldston1, Kristian Finlator1, Gillian R. Knapp1, Brian Yanny2, Timothy A. McKay3, Susan Amrose3, Kevin Krisciunas4, Beth Willman4, Scott Anderson4, Chris Schaber4, Dawn Erb4, Chelsea Logan4, Chris Stubbs4, Bing Chen5, Eric Neilsen5, Alan Uomoto5, Jeffrey R. Pier6, Xiaohui Fan1, James E. Gunn1, Robert H. Lupton1, Constance M. Rockosi7, David Schlegel1, Michael A. Strauss1, James Annis2, Jon Brinkmann8, István Csabai5,9, Mamoru Doi10, Masataka Fukugita11,12, Gregory S. Hennessy13, Robert B. Hindsley14, Bruce Margon4, Jeffrey A. Munn6, Heidi Jo Newberg15, Donald P. Schneider16, J. Allyn Smith3, Gyula P. Szokoly17, Aniruddha R. Thakar5, Michael S. Vogeley1, Patrick Waddell4, Naoki Yasuda18 and Donald G. York7
Show affiliationsWe present a sample of 148 candidate RR Lyrae stars selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) commissioning data for about 100 deg2 of sky surveyed twice with Δt = 1.9946 days. Although the faint-magnitude limit of the SDSS allows us to detect RR Lyrae stars to large Galactocentric distances (~100 kpc, or r* ~ 21), we find no candidates fainter than r* ~ 20, i.e., farther than ~65 kpc from the Galactic center. On the assumption that all 148 candidates are indeed RR Lyrae stars (contamination by other species of variable star is probably less than 10%), we find that their volume density has roughly a power-law dependence on Galactocentric radius, R-2.7±0.2, between 10 and 50 kpc and drops abruptly at R ~ 50–60 kpc, possibly indicating a sharp edge to the stellar halo as traced by RR Lyrae stars. The Galactic distribution of stars in this sample is very inhomogeneous and shows a clump of over 70 stars at about 45 kpc from the Galactic center. This clump is also detected in the distribution of nonvariable objects with RR Lyrae star colors. When sources in the clump are excluded, the best power-law fit becomes consistent with the R-3 distribution found from surveys of bright RR Lyrae stars. These results imply that the halo contains clumpy overdensities inhomogeneously distributed within a smooth R-3 background, with a possible cutoff at ~50 kpc.
Issue 2 (2000 August)
Received 2000 January 27, accepted for publication 2000 April 11
Željko Ivezić et al. 2000 The Astronomical Journal 120 963
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