Deep Photometry of the Globular Cluster M5: Distance Estimates from White Dwarf and Main Sequence Stars

Abstract

We present deep VI photometry of stars in the globular cluster M5 (NGC 5904) based on images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The resulting color-magnitude diagram reaches below V ~ 27 mag, revealing the upper 2-3 magnitudes of the white dwarf cooling sequence, and main sequence stars eight magnitudes and more below the turn-off. We fit the main sequence to subdwarfs of known parallax to obtain a true distance modulus of (m-M)_0 = 14.45 +/- 0.11 mag. A second distance estimate based on fitting the cluster white dwarf sequence to field white dwarfs with known parallax yielded (m-M)_0 = 14.67 +/- 0.18 mag. We couple our distance estimates with extensive photometry of the cluster's RR Lyrae variables to provide a calibration of the RR Lyrae absolute magnitude yielding M_V(RR) = 0.42 +/- 0.10 mag at [Fe/H] = -1.11 dex. We provide another luminosity calibration in the form of reddening-free Wasenheit functions. Comparison of our calibrations with predictions based on recent models combining stellar evolution and pulsation theories shows encouraging agreement. (Abridged)

AASTeX, 29 pages including 5 figures. Complete photometry data and FITS-format images are available at http://physics.bgsu.edu/~layden/ASTRO/PUBL/published.html . Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, 2005 October 20. Replaced errant wording in last sentence of paragraph 4 of conclusions