Bayesian Analysis Of RR Lyrae Luminosities And Kinematics

We are using a hierarchical Bayes model to analyze the distances, luminosities, and kinematics of RR Lyrae stars. Our model relates these characteristics to the raw data of proper motions, radial velocities, apparent luminosities and metallicities of each star. A combination of Gibbs and Metropolis-Hastings sampling, using latent variables for the actual velocity and luminosity of each star, is used to draw a sample from the full posterior distribution of these variables, with consideration to identifiability and the properness of the hierarchical model, and draw inferences on the quantities of interest in the usual way. We have applied our model to the large HIPPARCOS database, and we have attempted to include metallicity and period in our model, which has not been done previously.