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Description
We present results from WIYN pODI imaging of Lacerta I (And XXXI), a satellite dwarf galaxy discovered in the outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) in Pan-STARRS1 survey data. Our deep, wide-field g,i photometry reaches ~3mag fainter than the photometry in the Pan-STARRS1 discovery paper and allows us to trace the stellar population of Lac I beyond two half-light radii from the galaxy center. We measure a Tip of the Red Giant Branch distance for Lac I of (m-M)_0_=24.44+/-0.11mag (773+/-40kpc, or 264+/-6kpc from M31), which is consistent with the Pan-STARRS1 distance. We use a maximum-likelihood technique to derive structural properties for the galaxy, and find a half-light radius (r_h_) of 3.24+/-0.21' (728+/-47pc), ellipticity ({epsilon}) of 0.44+/-0.03, total magnitude M_V_=-11.4+/-0.3, and central surface brightness {mu}_V,0_=24.8+/-0.3mag/arcsec^2^. We find no H I emission in archival data and set a limit on Lac I's neutral gas mass-to-light ratio of M_HI_/L_V_<0.06M_{sun}_/L_{sun}_, confirming Lac I as a gas-poor dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Photometric metallicities derived from Red Giant Branch stars within 2 r_h_ yield a median [Fe/H] of -1.68+/-0.03, which is more metal-rich than the spectroscopically derived value from Martin+ (2014ApJ...793L..14M). Combining our measured magnitude with this higher metallicity estimate places Lac I closer to its expected position on the luminosity-metallicity relation for dwarf galaxies.
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