Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
A statistical parallax algorithm (Clube and Dave, 1978a,b), using the technique of maximum likelihood, has been applied to a set of 103 ‘ab’ - RR Lyrae stars in the solar neighborhood (r 2<kpc), using observational data from the Royal Greenwich Observatory Bulletins. A second set of 130 ‘ab’ - RR Lyrae stars has been kindly supplied to us by Dr. A. Heck (Université de Liège) to permit a comparison between our analyses. The purpose of this investigation was:
(a) to investigate the variations of kinematical parameters and absolute luminosities of these stars as functions of Preston's index ΔS and of log (Period).
(b) to identify those RR Lyrae stars in the solar neighborhood which most closely resemble those in the galactic halo, those near the galactic center, and those in the Magellanic Clouds.