Distances to Local Group Galaxies via Population II, Stellar Distance Indicators I: The Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal

Abstract

We determine the distance to the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal via three Population II stellar distance indicators: (a) the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB), (b) RR Lyrae variables (RRLs), and (c) the ridgeline of the blue horizontal branch (HB). High signal-to-noise, wide-field $VI$ imaging that covers an area $48^{\prime }\times 48^{\prime }$ and reaches a photometric depth approximately 2 mag fainter than the HB was acquired with the Magellan-Baade 6.5m telescope. The true modulus derived from Sculptor's TRGB is found to be ${\mu }_o^{\mathrm{TRGB}}=19.59\pm 0.07_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 0.05_{\mathrm{sys}}$ mag. Along with periods adopted from the literature, newly acquired RRL phase points are fit with template light curves to determine ${\mu }_{W_{I,V-I}}^{\mathrm{RRL}}=19.60\pm 0.01_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 0.05_{\mathrm{sys}}$ mag. Finally, the HB distance is found to be ${\mu }_o^{\mathrm{HB}}=19.54\pm 0.03_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm 0.09_{\mathrm{sys}}$ mag. Absolute calibrations of each method are anchored by independent geometric zero-points, utilizes a different class of stars, and are determined from the same photometric calibration.

arXiv comment16 pages, 14 figures

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