Standardized Luminosity of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch utilizing Multiple Fields in NGC 4258 and the CATs Algorithm

Abstract

The Tip of the Red Giant Branch provides a luminous standard candle for calibrating distance ladders that reach Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) hosts. However, recent work reveals that tip measurements vary at the $\sim$ 0.1 mag level for different stellar populations and locations within a host, which may lead to inconsistencies along the distance ladder. We pursue a calibration of the tip using 11 Hubble Space Telescope fields around the maser host, NGC 4258, that is consistent with SN Ia hosts by standardizing tip measurements via their contrast ratios. We find $F814W$-band tips that exhibit a full 0.3 mag range and 0.1 mag dispersion. We do not find any correlation between HI column density and the apparent tip to 0.04 $\pm$ 0.03 mag/cm${}^{-2}$. We search for a tip-contrast relation (TCR) and measure the TCR within the fields of NGC 4258 of $-0.015\pm 0.008$ mag/$R$, where $R$ is the contrast ratio. This value is consistent with the TCR originally discovered in the GHOSTS sample (Wu et al. 2022) of $-0.023\pm 0.005$ mag/R. Combining these measurements, we find a global TCR of $-0.021\pm 0.004$ mag/R and a calibration of $M_I^{TRGB}=-4.025\pm 0.035-(R-4)\times 0.021$ mag. We also use stellar models to simulate single age and metallicity stellar populations with [Fe/H] from $-2.0$ to $-0.7$ and ages from 3 Gyr to 12 Gyr and reconstruct the global TCR found here to a factor of $\sim$ 2. This work is combined in a companion analysis with tip measurements of nearby SN Ia hosts to measure $H_0$.

arXiv comment20 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to ApJ

References in corpus (49)

• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA)
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Giant Planets, Oscillations, Rotation, and Massive Stars
• Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Binaries, Pulsations, and Explosions
• MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST). I: Solar-Scaled Models
• The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III
• MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST) 0: Methods for the construction of stellar isochrones
• Adaptive spatial binning of integral-field spectroscopic data using Voronoi tessellations
• The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. VIII. An Independent Determination of the Hubble Constant Based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch
• Cosmicflows-2: The Data
• Numerical Methods of Star Formation History Measurement and Applications to Seven Dwarf Spheroidals
• Measurements of the Hubble Constant: Tensions in Perspective
• Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB)
• The Megamaser Cosmology Project. XIII. Combined Hubble constant constraints
• Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances. II. Zero-Point Calibration
• An Improved Distance to NGC 4258 and its Implications for the Hubble Constant
• The HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale XXVI. The Calibration of Population II Secondary Distance Indicators and the Value of the Hubble Constant
• Deviations from the Local Hubble Flow. I. The Tip of the Red Giant Branch as a Distance Indicator
• The Westerbork Hydrogen Accretion in Local Galaxies (HALOGAS) Survey I. Survey Description and Pilot Observations
• Measuring the galaxy-mass and galaxy-dust correlations through magnification and reddening
• Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances. I. Optimization of a Maximum Likelihood Algorithm
• The Hubble Constant from Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances
• Comparing Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance Scales: An Independent Reduction of the Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program and the Value of the Hubble Constant
• The Extragalactic Distance Database: The Color-Magnitude Diagrams and Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances Catalog
• The brightness of the Red Giant Branch tip: Theoretical framework, a set of reference models, and predicted observables
• The Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances to Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies. IV. Color Dependence and Zero-Point Calibration
• Old-Aged Stellar Population Distance Indicators
• 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
• The Distance to M51
• The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. II. The Distance to IC 1613: The Tip of the Red Giant Branch and RR Lyrae Period-Luminosity Relations
• A Robust Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance to the Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946)
• Infrared Tip of the Red Giant Branch and Distances to the Maffei/IC 342 Group
• The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. IX. Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch Method in the Mega-Maser Host Galaxy, NGC4258 (M106)
• The Near-Infrared Tip of the Red Giant Branch. II. An Absolute Calibration in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Using the Tip of the Red Giant Branch as a Distance Indicator in the Near Infrared
• The luminosity of supernovae of type Ia from TRGB distances and the value of H_0
• The Distance to M101 Hosting Type Ia SN 2011fe Based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch
• The Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances to Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies. III. NGC 4038/39 and NGC 5584
• Determination of the Local Hubble Constant from Virgo Infall Using TRGB Distances
• The Extragalactic Distance Scale without Cepheids
• A Maximum Likelihood Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch Luminosity from High Latitude Field Giants using Gaia Early Data Release 3 Parallaxes
• On Zero Point Calibration of the Red Giant Branch Tip in the Magellanic Clouds
• The Araucaria Project. Multi-band calibrations of the TRGB absolute magnitude
• The Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances to Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies. II. M66 and M96 in the Leo I Group
• ArtPop: A Stellar Population and Image Simulation Python Package
• Comparative Analysis of TRGBs (CATs) from Unsupervised, Multi-Halo-Field Measurements: Contrast is Key
• The Extragalactic Distance Scale without Cepheids IV

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• 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
• Calibrating and standardizing the Tip of the Red Giant Branch in the Small Magellanic Cloud using small-amplitude red giants
• The Chicago Carnegie Hubble Program: Improving the Calibration of SNe Ia with JWST Measurements of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch