Near-Field Cosmology with RR Lyrae Variable Stars: a first view of substructure in the southern sky
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Date
2016
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Abstract
We present the current status of the spectroscopic follow-up of a large number of RR Lyrae (RRL) halo overdensity candidates recently found by Torrealba et al. (2015) using southern-hemisphere data from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey (CRTS). Characterizing the individual RRL stars in these overdensities is crucial to confirm them as real halo substructures. Low-resolution spectra have been obtained for RRL stars in 11 different overdensities, using the SOAR and Magellan telescopes. Radial velocities and metallicities have been derived so far for 123 and 99 RRL stars, respectively....