Insights into the Cepheid distance scale

Abstract

We present an investigation of Cepheid distances using theory and observations. Cepheid models indicate that the slope of the Period-Luminosity (P-L) relation covering the entire period range (0.40<= logP <=2.0) becomes steeper when moving from optical to NIR bands, and that the metallicity dependence of the slope decreases from the B- to the K-band. We estimated V- and I-band slopes for 87 Cepheid data sets belonging to 48 external galaxies with nebular oxygen abundance 7.5<= 12+log (O/H) <=8.9. By using Cepheid samples including more than 20 Cepheids, the chi^2 test indicates that the hypothesis of a steepening of the P-L_{V,I} relations with increased metallicity can be discarded at the 99% level. On the contrary, the observed slopes agree with the metallicity trend predicted by pulsation models, i.e. the slope is roughly constant for galaxies with 12+log (O/H) < 8.17 and becomes shallower in the metal-rich regime, with a confidence level of 62% and 92%, respectively. The chi^2 test concerning the hypothesis that the slope does not depend on metallicity gives confidence levels either similar (P-L_V, 62%) or smaller (P-L_I, 67%). We found that the slopes of optical and NIR Period-Wesenheit (P-W) relations in external galaxies are similar to the slopes of LMC. On this ground, the P-W relations provide robust distances relative to the LMC, but theory and observations indicate that the metallicity dependence of the zero-point in the different passbands has to be taken into account. We compared the galaxy distances provided by Rizzi et al. (2007) using the TRGB with our set of Cepheid distances based on the P-W relations. We found that the metallicity correction on distances based on the P-WBV relation is gamma_(B,V)=-0.52 mag dex^-1, whereas it is vanishing for the distances based on the P-WVI and on the P-WJK relations. These findings fully support Cepheid theoretical predictions.

Paper accepted for publication on ApJ (21 pages, 16 figures).

References in corpus (34)

• A new Cepheid distance to the maser-host galaxy NGC 4258 and its implications for the Hubble Constant
• Extragalactic chemical abundances: do HII regions and young stars tell the same story? The case of the spiral galaxy NGC 300
• The influence of chemical composition on the properties of Cepheid stars. II-The iron content
• A new calibration of Galactic Cepheid Period-Luminosity relations from B to K bands, and a comparison to LMC PL relations
• Scaled solar tracks and isochrones in a large region of the Z-Y plane. II. From 2.5 to 20 solar masses
• Cepheid Parallaxes and the Hubble Constant
• Cepheid Distances to SNe Ia Host Galaxies based on a Revised Photometric Zero-Point of the HST-WFPC2 and New P-L Relations and Metallicity Corrections
• Quantitative Spectroscopy of 24 A supergiants in the Sculptor galaxy NGC 300: Flux weighted gravity luminosity relationship, metallicity and metallicity gradient
• The Discovery of Cepheids and a Distance to NGC 5128
• Cepheid Calibrations of Modern Type Ia Supernovae:Implications for the Hubble Constant
• Galactic abundance gradients from Cepheids : On the iron abundance gradient around 10-12 kpc
• Sharpening the Tip of the Red Giant Branch
• Comparison of Distances from RR Lyrae Stars, the Tip of the Red-Giant Branch and Classical Cepheids
• Cepheids in external galaxies. I. The maser-host galaxy NGC 4258 and the metallicity dependence of P-L and P-W relations
• New period-luminosity and period-color relations of classical Cepheids: III. Cepheids in SMC
• Classical Cepheid Pulsation Models. XI. Effects of convection and chemical composition on the Period-Luminosity and Period-Wesenheit relations
• Metallicity-corrected Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance to NGC 4258
• Uncertainties on the theoretical predictions for classical Cepheid pulsational quantities
• The Araucaria Project: Distance to the Local Group Galaxy NGC 3109 from Near-Infrared Photometry of Cepheids
• Baade-Wesselink distances and the effect of metallicity in classical cepheids
• Pulsation Models for Ultra-Low (Z=0.0004) Metallicity Classical Cepheids
• The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Sculptor Galaxy NGC 247 from Near-Infrared Photometry of Cepheid Variables
• On the distance and reddening of the starburst galaxy IC10
• The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Local Group Galaxy WLM from Near-Infrared Photometry of Cepheid Variables
• Testing the nonlinearity of the BVIcJHKs period-luminosity relations for the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids
• A comprehensive study of Cepheid variables in the Andromeda galaxy. Period distribution, blending and distance determination
• The Araucaria Project. Near-Infrared Photometry of Cepheid Variables in the Sculptor Galaxy NGC 55
• The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Local Group Galaxy WLM from Cepheid Variables discovered in a Wide-Field Imaging Survey
• The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Sculptor Group Galaxy NGC 55 from a Newly Discovered Abundant Cepheid Population
• Temperature Differences in the Cepheid Instability Strip Require Differences in the Period-Luminosity Relation in Slope and Zero Point
• The Araucaria Project. A Wide-Field Photometric Survey for Cepheid Variables in NGC 3109
• The ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury III: Cepheids in the Outer Disk of M81
• The Hubble Constant from Type Ia Supernova Calibrated with the Linear and Non-Linear Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation
• The Araucaria Project: The Distance to the Sculptor Group Galaxy NGC 247 from Cepheid Variables Discovered in a Wide-Field

Cited by in corpus (106)

• The Araucaria Project. The distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud from late-type eclipsing binaries
• On a new theoretical framework for RR Lyrae stars I: the metallicity dependence
• Galactic archaeology: mapping and dating stellar populations with asteroseismology of red-giant stars
• On the fine structure of the Cepheid metallicity gradient in the Galactic thin disk
• A New Cepheid Distance to the Giant Spiral M101 Based On Image Subtraction of HST/ACS Observations
• The Abundance Properties of Nearby Late-Type Galaxies.I. The Data
• On the Effect of Rotation on Populations of Classical Cepheids II. Pulsation Analysis for Metallicities 0.014, 0.006, and 0.002
• Calibrating the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation from the infrared surface brightness technique I. The p-factor, the Milky Way relations, and a universal K-band relation
• The Carnegie Hubble Program: The Distance and Structure of the SMC as Revealed by Mid-infrared Observations of Cepheids
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? III. The Small Magellanic Cloud
• Distance Scale Zero-Points from Galactic RR Lyrae Star Parallaxes
• The VMC Survey. XXV. The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from Classical Cepheids
• Calibrating the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation from the infrared surface brightness technique II. The effect of metallicity, and the distance to the LMC
• Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. I. Cepheid variables and the calibration of the Leavitt Law
• Gaia Data Release 1. Testing the parallaxes with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars
• On the distance of the globular cluster M4 (NGC 6121) using RR Lyrae stars: I. optical and near-infrared Period-Luminosity and Period-Wesenheit relations
• Galactic abundance gradients from Cepheids: alpha and heavy elements in the outer disk
• A new LMC K-band distance from precision measurements of nearby red clump stars
• On the distance of the Magellanic Clouds using Cepheid NIR and optical-NIR Period Wesenheit Relations
• The Structure of Nuclear Star Clusters in Nearby Late-type Spiral Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 Imaging
• The VMC Survey. V. First results for Classical Cepheids
• A Study of Cepheids in M81 with the Large Binocular Telescope (Efficiently Calibrated with HST)
• A Near-Infrared Period-Luminosity Relation for Miras in NGC 4258, an Anchor for a New Distance Ladder
• Baade-Wesselink distances to Galactic and Magellanic Cloud Cepheids and the effect of metallicity
• The panchromatic view of the Magellanic Clouds from Classical Cepheids. I. Distance, Reddening and Geometry of the Large Magellanic Cloud disk
• Cepheid theoretical models and observations in HST/WFC3 filters: the effect on the Hubble constant Ho
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? II. M31 and beyond
• New NIR light-curve templates for classical Cepheids
• Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. II. The Wesenheit relations and their application to the Distance scale
• Revisiting the abundance gradient in the maser host galaxy NGC 4258
• Period-luminosity relations of type II Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds
• On the metallicity distribution of classical Cepheids in the Galactic inner disk
• Metallicity gradients in Local Universe galaxies: time evolution and effects of radial migration
• Evolution of dwarf galaxies: a dynamical perspective
• Optical Identification of Cepheids in 19 Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae and NGC 4258 with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Classical Cepheid period-Wesenheit-metallicity relation in the Gaia bands
• TESS observations of Cepheid stars: first light results
• A Global Physical Model for Cepheids
• The Araucaria Project. First Cepheid Distance to the Sculptor Group Galaxy NGC 7793 from Variables discovered in a Wide-Field Imaging Survey
• An updated metal-dependent theoretical scenario for Classical Cepheids
• The ACS LCID Project. VIII. The short-period Cepheids of Leo A
• On the Application of Wesenheit Function in Deriving Distance to Galactic Cepheids
• High-precision distance measurements with classical pulsating stars
• Cepheid Metallicity in the Leavitt Law (C-MetaLL) survey: I. HARPS-N@TNG spectroscopy of 47 Classical Cepheid and 1 BL Her variables
• The VMC Survey. XIX. Classical Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Probing the early chemical evolution of the Sculptor dSph with purely old stellar tracers
• Multiplicity of Galactic Cepheids from long-baseline interferometry I. CHARA/MIRC detection of the companion of V1334 Cygni
• On the neutron-capture elements across the Galactic thin disk using Cepheids
• The VMC survey - XXIII. Model fitting of light and radial velocity curves of Small Magellanic Cloud classical Cepheids
• The Carnegie Chicago Hubble Program: The Mid-Infrared Colours of Cepheids and the Effect of Metallicity on the CO Band-head at $4.6\mu$m
• A Comparative Study of Multiwavelength Theoretical and Observed Light Curves of Cepheid Variables
• Detailed chemical composition of classical Cepheids in the LMC cluster NGC 1866 and in the field of the SMC
• Properties of M31. II: A Cepheid disk sample derived from the first year of PS1 PAndromeda data
• On the Period--Luminosity--Metallicity relation of Classical Cepheids
• Sensitive 21cm Observations of Neutral Hydrogen in the Local Group near M31
• A new and homogeneous metallicity scale for Galactic classical Cepheids II. The abundance of iron and alpha elements
• A precision determination of the Effect of Metallicity on Cepheid absolute magnitudes in VIJHK bands from Magellanic Cloud Cepheids
• The M31 Near-Infrared Period-Luminosity Relation and its non-linearity for $\delta$ Cep Variables with $0.5\le \log (P)\le 1.7$
• On a new and homogeneous metallicity scale for Galactic classical Cepheids - I. Physical parameters
• Ultra Long Period Cepheids: a primary standard candle out to the Hubble flow
• The Cepheid distance to the maser-host galaxy NGC 4258: Studying systematics with the Large Binocular Telescope
• Cepheids in M31 - The PAndromeda Cepheid sample
• Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury XIII: The Cepheid period-luminosity relation in M31
• CORS Baade-Wesselink distance to the LMC NGC 1866 blue populous cluster
• Impact of distance determinations on Galactic structure. I. Young and intermediate-age tracers
• The Metallicity Dependence of the Cepheid P-L Relation in M101
• Anchors for the Cosmic Distance Scale: the Cepheids U Sgr, CF Cas and CEab Cas
• A Study on the Universality and Linearity of the Leavitt Law in the LMC and SMC Galaxies
• Carbon stars as standard candles -- III. Un-binned maximum likelihood fitting and comparison with TRGB estimations
• Period-Luminosity Relations for Cepheid Variables: From Mid-Infrared to Multi-Phase
• AT 2017be - a new member of the class of Intermediate-Luminosity Red Transients
• Spectroscopic properties of a two-dimensional time-dependent Cepheid model I. Description and validation of the model
• Cepheid Metallicity in the Leavitt Law (C- MetaLL) survey: VI: Radial abundance gradients of 29 chemical species in the Milky Way Disk
• Period-Luminosity Relations Derived From the OGLE-III Fundamental Mode Cepheids II: The Small Magellanic Cloud Cepheids
• On the Form of the Spitzer Leavitt Law and its Dependence on Metallicity
• On the Metallicity Dependence of Classical Cepheid Light Amplitudes
• Searching for Milky Way twins: Radial abundance distribution as a strict criterion
• Metallicity estimation of MW, SMC and LMC classical Cepheids from the shape of the $V$- and $I$-band light curves
• Theoretical Cepheid Period-Luminosity And Period-Color Relations In Spitzer IRAC Bands
• Period-Luminosity Relations for Galactic classical Cepheids in the Sloan bands
• Young and Intermediate-age Distance Indicators
• Clustered Cepheid Variables 90 kiloparsec from the Galactic Center
• Atmospheric parameters of Cepheids from flux ratios with ATHOS: I. The temperature scale
• The mid-infrared Leavitt Law for Classical Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds
• New classical Cepheids in the inner part of the northern Galactic disk and their kinematics
• MUSE crowded field 3D spectroscopy in NGC 300 : IV. Planetary nebula luminosity function
• Time-Series Surveys and Pulsating Stars: The Near-Infrared Perspective
• On the Paradoxical Impact of Blending by Red Clump Giants
• M31 PAndromeda Cepheid sample observed in four HST bands
• Convective shells in the interior of Cepheid variable stars: overshooting models based on hydrodynamic simulations
• Distance and Reddening of the Isolated Dwarf Irregular Galaxy NGC 1156
• Stellar Populations in the Galactic Center
• Multipopulation aftereffects on the color-magnitude diagram and Cepheid variables of young stellar systems
• Classical Cepheids, what else?
• On the use of asymmetric PSF on NIR images of crowded stellar fields
• On the impact of Helium abundance on the Cepheid Period-Luminosity and Wesenheit relations and the Distance Ladder
• Distance determination from the Cepheids and RR Lyrae period-luminosity relations
• Evidence for Photometric Contamination in Key Observations of Cepheids in the Benchmark Galaxy IC 1613
• M33 Cepheids from CFHT/MegaCAM survey
• Asteroseismology, standard candles and the Hubble Constant: what is the role of asteroseismology in the era of precision cosmology?
• Multiwavelength light curve analysis of Cepheid variables
• The CUBES Science Case
• Extragalactic Supergiants
• Milky Way galaxy-analogs and isolated galaxies with bars: environmental density in the Local Volume
• Wesenheit Function for Galactic Cepheids: Application to the Projection Factors
• OGLE-IV Period-Luminosity relation of the LMC: an analysis using mean and median magnitudes