Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? II. M31 and beyond

Abstract

The accuracy of extragalactic distance measurements ultimately depends on robust, high-precision determinations of the distances to the galaxies in the local volume. Following our detailed study addressing possible publication bias in the published distance determinations to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), here we extend our distance range of interest to include published distance moduli to M31 and M33, as well as to a number of their well-known dwarf galaxy companions. We aim at reaching consensus on the best, most homogeneous, and internally most consistent set of Local Group distance moduli to adopt for future, more general use based on the largest set of distance determinations to individual Local Group galaxies available to date. Based on a careful, statistically weighted combination of the main stellar population tracers (Cepheids, RR Lyrae variables, and the magnitude of the tip of the red-giant branch), we derive a recommended distance modulus to M31 of $(m-M{)}_0^{M31}=24.46\pm 0.10$ mag---adopting as our calibration an LMC distance modulus of $(m-M{)}_0^{\mathrm{LMC}}=18.50$ mag---and a fully internally consistent set of benchmark distances to key galaxies in the local volume, enabling us to establish a robust and unbiased, near-field extragalactic distance ladder.

AJ, in press; 32 pages in AASTeX preprint format, 6 postscript figures. For online database, see http://astro-expat.info/Data/pubbias.html

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Cited by in corpus (33)

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• Redshift-Independent Distances in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database: Methodology, Content and Use of NED-D
• Standard Galactic Field RR Lyrae II: A Gaia DR2 calibration of the period-Wesenheit-metallicity relation
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? IV. The Galactic Center
• A sub-2% Distance to M31 from Photometrically Homogeneous Near-Infrared Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relations Measured with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale
• Stellar substructures in the periphery of the Magellanic Clouds with the VISTA Hemisphere Survey from the red clump and other tracers
• Constraining the pitch angle of the Galactic spiral arms in the Milky Way
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region (PHATTER). III. The Mass Function of Young Star Clusters in M33
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? V. Galactic rotation constants
• The TREX Survey: Kinematical Complexity Throughout M33's Stellar Disk and Evidence for a Stellar Halo
• A spectroscopic study of blue supergiant stars in Local Group spiral galaxies: Andromeda and Triangulum
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region (PHATTER). IV. Star Cluster Catalog
• The Triangulum Extended (TREX) Survey: The Stellar Disk Dynamics of M33 as a Function of Stellar Age
• Zwicky Transient Facility and Globular Clusters: The Period-Luminosity and Period-Wesenheit Relations for Type II Cepheids
• The potential role of NGC 205 in generating Andromeda's vast thin co-rotating plane of satellite galaxies
• Solo dwarfs IV: Comparing and contrasting satellite and isolated dwarf galaxies in the Local Group
• Constrained cosmological simulations of the Local Group using Bayesian hierarchical field-level inference
• Multiwavelength Characterization of the High Mass X-ray Binary Population of M33
• The HASHTAG project I. A Survey of CO(3-2) Emission from the Star Forming Disc of M31
• A Distance Measurement to M33 Using Optical Photometry of Mira Variables
• VI-Band Follow-Up Observations of Ultra-Long-Period Cepheid Candidates in M31
• New insights into the use of Ultra Long Period Cepheids as cosmological standard candles
• Massive young stellar objects in the Local Group spiral galaxy M33 identified using machine learning
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? VI. Extending to Virgo cluster distances
• A Differential RR Lyrae Line-of-Sight Distance Between M31 and M33
• The Accretion Mode in Sub-Eddington Supermassive Black Holes: Getting into the Central Parsecs of Andromeda
• Zwicky Transient Facility and Globular Clusters: the gr-Band Period-Luminosity Relations for Mira Variables at Maximum Light and Their Applications to Local Galaxies
• The HASHTAG project: The First Submillimeter Images of the Andromeda Galaxy from the Ground
• Period-Luminosity Relations for Galactic Type II Cepheids in the Sloan bands
• The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury: Triangulum Extended Region (PHATTER) II. The Spatially Resolved Recent Star Formation History of M33