Planetary Nebulae as Standard Candles. XII. Connecting the Population I and Population II Distance Scales

By R. Ciardullo, J. Feldmeier, George Jacoby, Rachel Kuzio de Naray, M. Laychak, P. Durrell. 2002

198 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report the results of [O III] λ5007 surveys for planetary nebulae (PNe) in six galaxies: NGC 2403, NGC 3115, NGC 3351, NGC 3627, NGC 4258, and NGC 5866. Using on-band/off-band [O III] λ5007 images, as well as images taken in Hα, we identify samples of PNe in these galaxies and derive their distances using the planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF). We then combine these measurements with previous data to compare the PNLF, Cepheid, and surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distance scales. We use a sample of 13 galaxies to show that the absolute magnitude of the PNLF cutoff is fainter in small, low-metallicity systems, but the trend is well modeled by the theoretical relation of Dopita, Jacoby, & Vassiliadis. When this metallicity dependence is removed, the scatter between the Cepheid and PNLF distances becomes consistent with the internal errors of the methods and independent of any obvious galaxy parameter. We then use these data to recalibrate the zero point of the PNLF distance scale. We use a sample of 28 galaxies to show that the scatter between the PNLF and SBF distance measurements agrees with that predicted from the techniques' internal errors and that there is no systematic trend between the distance residuals and stellar population. However, we also find that the PNLF and SBF methods have a significant scale offset: Cepheid-calibrated PNLF distances are, on average, ~0.3 mag smaller than Cepheid-calibrated SBF distances. We discuss the possible causes of this offset and suggest that internal extinction in the bulges of the SBF calibration galaxies is the principal cause of the discrepancy. If this hypothesis is correct, then the SBF-based Hubble constant must be increased by ~7%. We also use our distance to NGC 4258 to argue that the short distance scale to the LMC is correct and that the global Hubble constant inferred from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project should be increased by 8% ± 3% to H0 = 78 ± 7 km s-1 Mpc-1.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ad1164d11b8ca7968be135523dcd68dac44813f7

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Citations in the corpus

The Effect of Metallicity on Cepheid-based Distances (2004, methodology): “A null result was also derived by Ciardullo et al. (2002) from a comparison of Cepheid and planetary nebula luminosity function (LF) distances to nearby galaxies.”
THE PdBI ARCSECOND WHIRLPOOL SURVEY (PAWS). I. A CLOUD-SCALE/MULTI-WAVELENGTH VIEW OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IN A GRAND-DESIGN SPIRAL GALAXY (2013, methodology): “We chose M 51 (“The Whirlpool Galaxy”) as the target of our survey as it is one of the closest (D ∼ 7.6 Mpc, Ciardullo et al. 2002), face-on (i ∼ 22◦, Tully 1974, Colombo et al. in prep.)”
The Distance to NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) (2009, background): “It was shown in the late 1970s that the PNLF is an excellent standard candle for distance measurement to nearby galaxies (see e.g. Ciardullo et al. 2002; Ciardullo 2003, for a comprehensive recent discussion).”
The Hubble Constant (2010, methodology): “Main sequence fitting, red giant “clump” stars, RR Lyrae stars, the level of the horizontal branch, Mira variables, novae and planetary nebula luminosity functions (PNLF), globular cluster luminosity functions (GCLF), as well as red and blue supergiant stars all fall into this class.”
The physical properties of star-forming galaxies in the low-redshift universe (2003, methodology): “It is straightforward to assess this, as the PNe O III luminosity function seems to be universal (e.g. Ciardullo et al. 2002 and references therein).”
Magnetic fields and spiral arms in the galaxy M51 (2010, unknown): “At the assumed distance of 7.6 Mpc, the 15 arcsec resolution corresponds to 560 and 590 pc along the major and minor axes, respectively.”
HyperLEDA. III. The catalogue of extragalactic distances (2014, background): “The zero-point,M∗ = −4.48, is based on the M 31 distance of 710 kpc (Ciardullo et al. 2002).”
THE PdBI ARCSECOND WHIRLPOOL SURVEY (PAWS): ENVIRONMENTAL DEPENDENCE OF GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUD PROPERTIES IN M51 (2014, background): “The spatial resolution at our assumed distance to M51 of 7.6 Mpc (Ciardullo et al. 2002) is ∼40 pc.”