Stellar Loci. V. Photometric Metallicities of 27 Million FGK Stars Based on Gaia Early Data Release 3

Abstract

Abstract We combine LAMOST DR7 spectroscopic data and Gaia EDR3 photometric data to construct high-quality giant (0.7 < (BP − RP) < 1.4) and dwarf (0.5 < (BP − RP) < 1.5) samples in the high Galactic latitude region, with precise corrections for magnitude-dependent systematic errors in the Gaia photometry and careful reddening corrections using empirically determined color- and reddening-dependent coefficients. We use the two samples to build metallicity-dependent stellar loci of Gaia colors for giants and dwarfs, respectively. For a given (BP − RP) color, a 1 dex change in [Fe/H] results in about a 5 mmag change in (BP − G) color for solar-type stars. These relations are used to determine metallicity estimates from EDR3 colors. Despite the weak sensitivity, the exquisite data quality of these colors enables a typical precision of about δ [Fe/H] = 0.2 dex. Our method is valid for FGK stars with G ≤ 16, [Fe/H] ≥ −2.5, and E(B − V) ≤ 0.5. Stars with fainter G magnitudes, lower metallicities, or larger reddening suffer from higher metallicity uncertainties. With the enormous data volume of Gaia, we have measured metallicity estimates for about 27 million stars with 10 < G ≤ 16 across almost the entire sky, including over 6 million giants and 20 million dwarfs, which can be used for a number of studies. These include investigations of Galactic formation and evolution, the identification of candidate stars for subsequent high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up, the identification of wide binaries, and to obtain metallicity estimates of stars for asteroseismology and exoplanet research.