CEPHEID CALIBRATIONS OF MODERN TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE HUBBLE CONSTANT

Journal Article · Wed Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/183/1/109; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21269141

Riess, Adam G ^[1]; Macri, Lucas ^[2]; Weidong, Li; Filippenko, Alexei V; Chornock, Ryan; Ganeshalingham, Mohan ^[3]; Lampeitl, Hubert; Casertano, Stefano; Ferguson, Henry C; Mutchler, Max ^[4]; Jha, Saurabh W ^[5]; Greenhill, Lincoln ^[6]; Hicken, Malcolm ^[7]

---

1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
2. George P. and Cynthia W. Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Department of Physics, Texas A and M University, 4242 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4242 (United States)
3. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411 (United States)
4. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 (United States)
6. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA (United States)
7. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

This is the first of two papers reporting measurements from a program to determine the Hubble constant to {approx}5% precision from a refurbished distance ladder. We present new observations of 110 Cepheid variables in the host galaxies of two recent Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), NGC 1309 and NGC 3021, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We also present new observations of the hosts previously observed with HST whose SNe Ia provide the most precise luminosity calibrations: SN 1994ae in NGC 3370, SN 1998aq in NGC 3982, SN 1990N in NGC 4639, and SN 1981B in NGC 4536, as well as the maser host, NGC 4258. Increasing the interval between observations enabled the discovery of new, longer-period Cepheids, including 57 with P>60 days, which extend these period-luminosity (P-L) relations. We present 93 measurements of the metallicity parameter, 12 + log[O/H], measured from H II regions in the vicinity of the Cepheids and show these are consistent with solar metallicity. We find the slope of the seven dereddened P-L relations to be consistent with that of the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids and with parallax measurements of Galactic Cepheids, and we address the implications for the Hubble constant. We also present multi-band light curves of SN 2002fk (in NGC 1309) and SN 1995al (in NGC 3021) which may be used to calibrate their luminosities. In the second paper, we present observations of the Cepheids in the H band obtained with the Near-Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer on HST, further mitigating systematic errors along the distance ladder resulting from dust and chemical variations. The quality and homogeneity of these SN and Cepheid data provide the basis for a more precise determination of the Hubble constant.

• OSTI ID: 21269141
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 183; ISSN 0067-0049; ISSN APJSA2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
ACCURACY
CALIBRATION
CAMERAS
CEPHEIDS
COSMOLOGY
DUSTS
ERRORS
LUMINOSITY
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS
RED SHIFT
SPECTROMETERS
TELESCOPES