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Description
We investigate the steepening of the power-law slope beyond the Galactocentric radius of R~45kpc in the RR Lyrae (RRL) space density distribution found by Keller et al. (2008, Cat. J/ApJ/678/851). They identified 2016 RRL candidates derived from the analysis of archival observations of the Southern Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Object (SEKBO) survey. Our aim is to verify the completeness of RRLs and ultimately the space density distribution function given by Keller et al. We followed up on a subset of 137 candidates with a range of magnitudes (V~14-20) using the Faulkes Telescope (FT) database and confirmed 57 candidates as real RRLs. A cross-match between SEKBO RRL survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release-7 (SDSS DR-7) revealed 272 RRL candidates in common. Applying the color selection criteria proposed by Ivezi\'c et al. (2005AJ....129.1096I) resulted in 193 likely RRLs. The completeness as a function of magnitude was calculated empirically from the combined set of SEKBO RRL candidates from current FT data, SDSS cross-matched data, and the Prior et al. catalog (2009, Cat. J/ApJ/691/306). This resulted in a spatial density distribution characterized by two power laws with a break radius R within a range between 45kpc and 50kpc, similar to the results of Keller et al. We find the power-law slopes for the inner halo as n_inner_=-2.78+/-0.02 and for the outer halo as n_outer_=-5.0+/-0.2.
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