Mid-infrared study of RR Lyrae stars

We explore how the shape of the generic RR Lyrae mid-infrared light curve varies over period-space, comparing light curves in mid-infrared and optical bands. We find that optical light curves exhibit high amplitudes and a large spectrum of light-curve shapes, while mid-infrared light curves have low amplitudes and uniform light-curve shapes.

From the period-space analysis, we hope to improve the classification methods of RR Lyrae variables and enable reliable discovery of these pulsators in the WISE catalogue and future mid-infrared surveys such as the James Webb Space Telescope. We provide mid-infrared templates for typical RR Lyrae stars and demonstrate how these templates can be applied to improve estimates of mid-infrared RR Lyrae mean magnitude, which is used for distance measurement.