Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances. I. Optimization of a Maximum Likelihood Algorithm

By Dmitry I. Makarov, L. Makarova, L. Rizzi, R. B. Tully, A. Dolphin, S. Sakai, Edward Shaya. 2006

158 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Accurate distances to galaxies can be determined from the luminosities of stars at the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB). We use a maximum likelihood algorithm to locate the TRGB in galaxy color-magnitude diagrams. The algorithm is optimized by introducing reliable photometric errors and a completeness characterization determined with artificial star experiments. The program is extensively tested using Monte Carlo simulations, artificial galaxies, and a sample of nearby dwarf galaxies observed with the Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 and ACS. Our procedure is shown to be reliable, to have good accuracy, and to not introduce any systematic errors. The methodology is especially useful in cases in which the TRGB approaches the photometric limit and/or the RGB is poorly populated.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f1fb7d92648b562ec39b620a1bc0f2b20a0f3530

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Citations in the corpus

CONFIRMATION OF FAINT DWARF GALAXIES IN THE M81 GROUP (2013, methodology): “Previous work has shown that it is possible to measure tip of the red giant branch distances for resolved stellar populations in dwarf galaxies out to ∼ 10 Mpc (see e.g. Makarov et al. 2006; Rizzi et al. 2007; Jacobs et al. 2009).”
COSMICFLOWS-2: THE DATA (2013, methodology): “The TRGB should lie at least 1 mag brighter than this limit for a robust distance determination (Madore & Freedman 1995; Makarov et al. 2006; Madore et al. 2009).”
THE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF LOCAL GROUP DWARF GALAXIES. I. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/WIDE FIELD PLANETARY CAMERA 2 OBSERVATIONS (2014, methodology): “Calibrate the distance indicators: For CMDs with a well-populated tip of the red giant branch (TRGB), we used maximum likelihood fitting technique from 8 Weisz et al. 9 Makarov et al. (2006) to measure the magnitude of the TRGB.”
THE EXTRAGALACTIC DISTANCE DATABASE: COLOR–MAGNITUDE DIAGRAMS (2009, methodology): “We employ a program called TRGBTOOL that uses a maximum-likelihood method described by Makarov et al. (2006).”
Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distances. II. Zero-Point Calibration (2007, methodology): “The first paper in this series (Makarov et al. 2006, hereafter Paper I) discussed the mechanics of determining the TRGB.”
THE ACS NEARBY GALAXY SURVEY TREASURY (2007, methodology): “Although more sophisticated techniques exist (e.g., Makarov et al. 2006; Frayn & Gilmore 2003), the TRGB in our sample is typically well-populated and falls well above the photometric limit of the data, making our use of the widely used and calibrated edge-detection technique adequate for an…”
Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (2003, background): “…and successfully used by many independent groups to determine high-precision distances to large numbers of nearby galaxies (e.g., Sakai et al. 2004; Makarov et al. 2006; Rizzi et al. 2007; Dalcanton et al. 2009, 2012; Jang & Lee 2017a, 2017b; McQuinn et al. 2019; Freedman et al. 2019, and…”
Our Peculiar Motion Away from the Local Void (2007, methodology): “Procedures for measuring the TRGB are discussed by Sakai et al. (1996) and Makarov et al. (2006).”
THE EXTRAGALACTIC DISTANCE DATABASE (2009, methodology): “The magnitude of the TRGB is indicated by the broken horizontal line. the distance is less than 10 Mpc (Lee et al. 1993; Sakai et al. 1996; Méndez et al. 2002; Karachentsev et al. 2006; Makarov et al. 2006; Rizzi et al. 2007).”