Measuring Distances and Probing the Unresolved Stellar Populations of Galaxies Using Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations

By J. Jensen, J. Tonry, B. Barris, R. Thompson, Michael C. Liu, M. Rieke, E. Ajhar, J. Blakeslee. 2002

219 citations recorded by the source corpus.

To empirically calibrate the IR surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distance scale and probe the properties of unresolved stellar populations, we measured fluctuations in 65 galaxies using NICMOS on the Hubble Space Telescope. The early-type galaxies in this sample include elliptical and S0 galaxies and spiral bulges in a variety of environments. Absolute fluctuation magnitudes in the F160W (1.6 μm) filter (F160W) were derived for each galaxy using previously measured I-band SBF and Cepheid variable star distances. F160W SBFs can be used to measure distances to early-type galaxies with a relative accuracy of ~10%, provided that the galaxy color is known to ~0.035 mag or better. Near-IR fluctuations can also reveal the properties of the most luminous stellar populations in galaxies. Comparison of F160W fluctuation magnitudes and optical colors to stellar population model predictions suggests that bluer elliptical and S0 galaxies have significantly younger populations than redder ones and may also be more metal-rich. There are no galaxies in this sample with fluctuation magnitudes consistent with old, metal-poor (t > 5 Gyr, [Fe/H] < -0.7) stellar population models. Composite stellar population models imply that bright fluctuations in the bluer galaxies may be the result of an episode of recent star formation in a fraction of the total mass of a galaxy. Age estimates from the F160W fluctuation magnitudes are consistent with those measured using the Hβ Balmer-line index. The two types of measurements make use of completely different techniques and are sensitive to stars in different evolutionary phases. Both techniques reveal the presence of intermediate-age stars in the early-type galaxies of this sample.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/96a1c3e01b9ea777f34b03fca8f7d79a1ddb4d02

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. V. van Dokkum
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In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. G. Illingworth
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Citations in the corpus

• THE GROWTH OF MASSIVE GALAXIES SINCE z = 2 (2009, methodology): “Galaxies with a number density of 2×10−4 Mpc−3 have added mass to their outer regions at a net rate that declined from≈ 30 M⊙ yr−1 at z= 2 to≈ 10 M⊙ yr−1 today.”
• The Tully-Fisher relations of early-type spiral and S0 galaxies (2010, methodology): “As described in WBC09, we use surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) estimates where available (NGC 1381 from Jensen et al. 2003 and NGC 1596 from Tonry et al. 2001) and the Virgo cluster distance where appropriate (NGC 4469 and c© 2010 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1–17”
• Low-mass X-ray binaries as a stellar mass indicator for the host galaxy (2004, methodology): “For NGC5846 we used the distance of 24 Mpc as determined by Jensen et al. (2003) from I-band surface brightness fluctuation analysis.”
• THE GHOSTS SURVEY. I. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE ADVANCED CAMERA FOR SURVEYS DATA (2011, background): “Specifically, the Tully et al. (2009) Extragalactic Distance Database recorded a distance modulus (μ) of 30.64 ± 0.35 for NGC 5907, while SBF measurements of NGC 7814 have consistently measured μ < 30.75 (Tonry et al. 2001; Jensen et al. 2003).”
• The Hubble Constant from Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances (2021, methodology): “The models are less constraining in their predictions for nearIR SBF magnitudes, but they encompass the range of the observations (Jensen et al. 2003, 2015).”
• COUNTING LOW-MASS STARS IN INTEGRATED LIGHT (2011, background): “In addition to the fact that stellar evolution dictates how many such giants there should be, direct constraints on the relative number of luminous giants come from surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs) measured in nearby galaxies (e.g., Tonry et al. 2001; Liu et al. 2002; Jensen et al. 2003).”
• Kinematic properties of early-type galaxy haloes using planetary nebulae (2008, unknown): “Distance moduli are shifted by −0.16 mag to take into account the new Cepheid zero-point of Freedman et al. (2001) as done by Jensen et al. (2003).”
• The Coincidence of Nuclear Star Clusters and Active Galactic Nuclei (2008, unknown): “Using distances from Jensen et al. (2003), we find the MH of the NCs of −15.44 and −15.71 for NGC 3384 and 7457 respectively, corresponding to NC mass estimates of 2.1 and 2.7 × 107 M⊙ (§2.1).”
• The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIII. SBF Distance Catalog and the Three-dimensional Structure of the Virgo Cluster (2007, methodology): “…by many groups to measure distances for early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, using data from both ground–based telescopes (Tonry et al. 1990, 2000, 2001; Pahre & Mould 1994; Jensen et al. 1998; Jerjen et al. 2004) and from HST (Ajhar et al. 1997; Neilsen & Tsvetanov 2000; Jensen et al. 2003).”
• GALAXIES IN ΛCDM WITH HALO ABUNDANCE MATCHING: LUMINOSITY–VELOCITY RELATION, BARYONIC MASS–VELOCITY RELATION, VELOCITY FUNCTION, AND CLUSTERING (2010, methodology): “For the distances (required both for absolute magnitudes and for choosing the circular velocity measurement radii in kpc), we use as a first choice the estimates from surface brightness fluctuations (Jensen et al. 2003), and otherwise the recession velocity.”
• THE CARNEGIE SUPERNOVA PROJECT: ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST SAMPLE OF LOW-REDSHIFT TYPE-Ia SUPERNOVAE (2009, background): “Subtracting 0.16 mag (Jensen et al. 2003) to put this on the Freedman et al. (2001) scale gives 31.84 ± 0.08 mag.”
• THE ACS FORNAX CLUSTER SURVEY. V. MEASUREMENT AND RECALIBRATION OF SURFACE BRIGHTNESS FLUCTUATIONS AND A PRECISE VALUE OF THE FORNAX–VIRGO RELATIVE DISTANCE (2009, methodology): “The ACSFCS and ACSVCS samples combined have 19 galaxies in common with Jensen et al. (2003), and we find it most interesting to present a direct comparison of the SBF magnitudes.”