Calibration of the distance scale from galactic Cepheids: I Calibration based on the GFG sample

Abstract

New estimates of the distances of 36 nearby galaxies are presented based on accurate distances of galactic Cepheids obtained by Gieren, Fouque and Gomez (1998) from the geometrical Barnes-Evans method. The concept of 'sosie' is applied to extend the distance determination to extragalactic Cepheids without assuming the linearity of the PL relation. Doing so, the distance moduli are obtained in a straightforward way. The correction for extinction is made using two photometric bands (V and I) according to the principles introduced by Freedman and Madore (1990). Finally, the statistical bias due to the incompleteness of the sample is corrected according to the precepts introduced by Teerikorpi (1987) without introducing any free parameters (except the distance modulus itself in an iterative scheme). The final distance moduli depend on the adopted extinction ratio {R_V}/{R_I} and on the limiting apparent magnitude of the sample. A comparison with the distance moduli recently published by the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project (HSTKP) team reveals a fair agreement when the same ratio {R_V}/{R_I} is used but shows a small discrepancy at large distance. In order to bypass the uncertainty due to the metallicity effect it is suggested to consider only galaxies having nearly the same metallicity as the calibrating Cepheids (i.e. Solar metallicity). The internal uncertainty of the distances is about 0.1 magnitude but the total uncertainty may reach 0.3 magnitude.

12 pages, 4 figures, access to a database of extragalactic Cepheids. Astronomy & Astrophysics (in press) 2002

References in corpus (1)

• Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Extending the Nearby Galaxy Heritage with WISE: First Results from the WISE Enhanced Resolution Galaxy Atlas
• XMM-Newton observations of the brightest Ultraluminous X-ray sources
• A Catalog of Candidate Intermediate-luminosity X-ray Objects
• Evidence for Pulsar-like Emission Components in the Broadband ULX Sample
• Broadband X-ray Spectra of the Ultraluminous X-ray Source Holmberg IX X-1 observed with NuSTAR, XMM-Newton and Suzaku
• Declining rotation curves of galaxies as a test of gravitational theory
• The extra-galactic Cepheid distance scale from LMC and Galactic period-luminosity relations
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? II. M31 and beyond
• Hubble Space Telescope observations of globular cluster systems along the Hubble sequence of spiral galaxies
• Revisiting Putative Cool Accretion Disks in Ultraluminous X-ray Sources
• The Mira Distance to M101 and a 4% Measurement of H0
• Calibration of the distance scale from galactic Cepheids:II Use of the HIPPARCOS calibration
• Searching for Massive Outflows in Holmberg IX X-1 and NGC 1313 X-1: The Iron K Band
• The Broadband Spectral Variability of Holmberg IX X-1
• A low upper mass limit for the central black hole in the late-type galaxy NGC 4414
• Average bolometric corrections and optical to X-ray flux measurements as a function of accretion rate for X-ray binaries