Astrophysical Distance Scale II. Application of the JAGB Method: A Nearby Galaxy Sample

Abstract

We apply the near-infrared J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) method, recently introduced by Madore \& Freedman (2020), to measure the distances to 14 nearby galaxies out to 4 Mpc. We use the geometric detached eclipsing binary (DEB) distances to the LMC and SMC as independent zero-point calibrators. We find excellent agreement with previously published distances based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB): the JAGB distance determinations (including the LMC and SMC) agree in the mean to within Delta(JAGB-TRGB) = +0.025 +/- 0.013 mag, just over 1%, where the TRGB I-band zero point is M_I = ~-4.05 mag. With further development and testing, the JAGB method has the potential to provide an independent calibration of Type Ia supernovae, especially with JWST. The JAGB stars (with M_J = -6.20 mag) can be detected farther than the fainter TRGB stars, allowing greater numbers of calibrating galaxies for the determination of Ho. Along with the TRGB and Cepheids, JAGB stars are amenable to theoretical understanding and further refined empirical calibration. A preliminary test shows little dependence, if any, of the JAGB magnitude with metallicity of the parent galaxy. These early results suggest that the JAGB method has considerable promise for providing high-precision distances to galaxies in the local universe that are independent of distances derived from the Leavitt Law and/or the TRGB method; and it has numerous and demonstrable advantages over the possible use of Mira variables.

arXiv comment33 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (82)

• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant
• A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant
• Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid Standards Provide a 1% Foundation for the Determination of the Hubble Constant and Stronger Evidence for Physics Beyond LambdaCDM
• Evolution of asymptotic giant branch stars II. Optical to far-infrared isochrones with improved TP-AGB models
• H0LiCOW XIII. A 2.4% measurement of $H_0$ from lensed quasars: $5.3\sigma$ tension between early and late-Universe probes
• A new generation of PARSEC-COLIBRI stellar isochrones including the TP-AGB phase
• The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. VIII. An Independent Determination of the Hubble Constant Based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch
• Cosmological implications of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements
• A distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud that is precise to one per cent
• The ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury
• Carnegie Hubble Program: A Mid-Infrared Calibration of the Hubble Constant
• Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB)
• Magellanic Cloud Structure from Near-IR Surveys I: The Viewing Angles of the LMC
• Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances. II. Zero-Point Calibration
• Evolution of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars I. The COLIBRI Code
• AGB Variables and the Mira Period-Luminosity Relation
• The Extragalactic Distance Database: Color-Magnitude Diagrams
• First Cosmological Results using Type Ia Supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey: Measurement of the Hubble Constant
• Constraining the thermally-pulsing asymptotic giant branch phase with resolved stellar populations in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Stellar Populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud from 2MASS
• Hubble Space Telescope Observations of Mira Variables in the Type Ia Supernova Host NGC 1559: An Alternative Candle to Measure the Hubble Constant
• Deviations from the Local Hubble Flow. I. The Tip of the Red Giant Branch as a Distance Indicator
• Associations of Dwarf Galaxies
• Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution in the Tidally-Stripped, Low Metallicity Small Magellanic Cloud (SAGE-SMC) II. Cool Evolved Stars
• The Metallicity Distribution in the Halo Stars of NGC 5128: Implications for Galaxy Formation
• Clarifying the Hubble constant tension with a Bayesian hierarchical model of the local distance ladder
• The VISTA ZYJHKs Photometric System: Calibration from 2MASS
• The very local Hubble flow
• AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds. II. The rate of star formation across the LMC
• The metallicity gradient as a tracer of history and structure: the Magellanic Clouds and M33 galaxies
• A blinded determination of $H_0$ from low-redshift Type Ia supernovae, calibrated by Cepheid variables
• The "Tip" of the Red Giant Branch as a distance indicator: results from evolutionary models
• Helium enrichment and Carbon-star Production in Metal-rich Populations
• Structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud from 2MASS
• AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds. I. The C/M ratio
• Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. I. Cepheid variables and the calibration of the Leavitt Law
• Over-constrained Gravitational Lens Models and the Hubble Constant
• On the extended structure of the Phoenix dwarf galaxy
• Evolution of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars IV. Constraining Mass-Loss & Lifetimes of Low Mass, Low Metallicity AGB Stars
• The evolved-star dust budget of the Small Magellanic Cloud: the critical role of a few key players
• An Infrared Census of DUST in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer (DUSTiNGS), II. Discovery of Metal-poor Dusty AGB Stars
• A Near-Infrared Period-Luminosity Relation for Miras in NGC 4258, an Anchor for a New Distance Ladder
• The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. II. The Distance to IC 1613: The Tip of the Red Giant Branch and RR Lyrae Period-Luminosity Relations
• The distance to the Leo I dwarf spheroidal galaxy from the Red Giant Branch Tip
• The stellar content of the Local Group dwarf galaxy Phoenix
• The Stellar Populations of NGC 3109: Another Dwarf Irregular Galaxy with a Population II Stellar Halo
• On the stellar populations in NGC 185 and NGC 205, and the nuclear star cluster in NGC 205 from Hubble Space Telescope observations
• Near-IR observations of NGC 6822: AGB stars, distance, metallicity and structure
• Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. V. Period-Luminosity Relations of Miras
• Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars in the Phoenix Dwarf Galaxy
• Dual Stellar Halos in the Standard Elliptical Galaxy M105 and Formation of Massive Early-Type Galaxies
• Near-infrared observations of the Fornax dwarf galaxy. I. The red giant branch
• Carbon stars as standard candles: I. The luminosity function of carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Near-infrared Mira Period-Luminosity Relations in M33
• Stellar populations in the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Leo I
• A New Cepheid Distance Measurement and Method for NGC 6822
• The Outer Halo of the Nearest Giant Elliptical: A VLT/VIMOS Survey of the Resolved Stellar Populations in Centaurus A to 85 kpc
• The AGB population of NGC 6822: distribution and the C/M ratio from JHK photometry
• The Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy: metallicity and stellar populations
• Long Period Variables in NGC 5128: II. Near-IR properties
• The distance to the Fornax dwarf galaxy using red clump stars, and the discrepancy between red clump and tip of the red giant branch distances
• The M33 Synoptic Stellar Survey. II. Mira Variables
• A Dramatic Decrease in Carbon Star Formation in M31
• Fundamentals of the Dwarf Fundamental Plane
• Detailed AGB evolutionary models and near infrared colours of intermediate-age stellar populations: Tests on star clusters
• A wide-area view of the Phoenix dwarf galaxy from VLT/FORS imaging
• The Star Formation Histories of Four Fields Spanning the Minor Axis of NGC 6822
• The assessment of the near infrared identification of Carbon stars. I. The Local Group galaxies WLM, IC 10 and NGC 6822
• The Araucaria Project. Population effects on the V and I band magnitudes of red clump stars
• The Outskrits of Spiral Galaxies: Evidence for Multiple Stellar Populations
• Near-Infrared photometry of carbon stars in the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy and DDO 210
• Stellar Populations of the Dwarf Galaxy UKS 2323--326 in the Sculptor Group
• The AGB population in IC 1613 using JHK photometry
• Resolving Stellar Populations outside the Local Group: MAD observations of UKS2323-326
• Distance and reddening of the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822
• The extended structure of the dwarf irregular galaxy Sagittarius
• A near-infrared study of AGB and red giant stars in the Leo I dSph galaxy
• Carbon Stars and C/M Ratio in the WLM Dwarf Irregular Galaxy
• Red giants in the outer halo of the elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 / Centaurus A
• Near-infrared properties of asymptotic giant branch stars in nearby dwarf elliptical Galaxy NGC 205

Cited by in corpus (17)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Type Ia supernova survey: first data release and results
• Reconnaissance with JWST of the J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch in Distance Ladder Galaxies: From Irregular Luminosity Functions to Approximation of the Hubble Constant
• The Astrophysical Distance Scale III: Distance to the Local Group Galaxy WLM using Multi-Wavelength Observations of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch, Cepheids, and JAGB Stars
• Carbon stars as standard candles: II. The median J magnitude as a distance indicator
• Milky Way Zero-Point Calibration of the JAGB Method: Using Thermally Pulsing AGB Stars in Galactic Open Clusters
• Carbon stars as standard candles -- III. Un-binned maximum likelihood fitting and comparison with TRGB estimations
• Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances with JWST. II. I-band Measurements in a Sample of Hosts of 10 SN Ia Match HST Cepheids
• A Preliminary Calibration of the JAGB Method Using Gaia EDR3
• Distances to Local Group Galaxies via Population II, Stellar Distance Indicators. II. The Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal
• Two per cent measurement of $H_0$ from Cepheids alone
• Coordinated JWST Imaging of Three Distance Indicators in a SN Host Galaxy and an Estimate of the TRGB Color Dependence
• Astrophysical Distance Scale IV. Preliminary Zero-Point Calibration of the JAGB Method in the HST/WFC3-IR Broad J-Band (F110W) Filter
• Synthetic photometry for carbon-rich giants. V. Effects of grain-size-dependent dust opacities
• A homogeneous view of asymptotic giant branch carbon stars as seen by Gaia
• The Astrophysical Distance Scale: V. A 2% Distance to the Local Group Spiral M33 via the JAGB Method, Tip of the Red Giant Branch, and Leavitt Law
• Redshift Duality with Pantheon+SH0ES in a Planck-anchored Flat $\Lambda$CDM Framework: Implications for Hubble Tension and Observational Inference