The "Tip" of the Red Giant Branch as a distance indicator: theoretical calibration and the value of H₀

1997/10/15 by S. Cassisi, M. Salaris, Cassisi, S. +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Absolute magnitude #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Cepheid variable #Coma Cluster #Cosmic distance ladder #Distance modulus #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Globular cluster #Horizontal branch #Instability strip #Local Group #Metallicity #Milky Way #Physics #RR Lyrae variable #Red-giant branch #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9710166

published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University) · 10 pages including 4 figures, gzip postscript file, To be published in "Views on distance indicators" MemSaIt 1998

arxiv created 1997/10/15 · openalex publication_date 1997/10/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Updated theoretical relations for the run of the bolometric and I magnitude of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) with respect to the metallicity are provided. An analogous relation for the V magnitude of the Zero Age Horizontal Branch at the RR Lyrae instability strip is also provided. A comparison has been performed among our ZAHB and TRGB distances, the Cepheid distance scale by Madore & Freedman (1991) and the HIPPARCOS distances set by local subdwarfs with accurate parallax determinations. The application of our TRGB distance scale to NGC3379 provides a distance to the Leo I group that is about 8% higher than the one obtained by Sakai et al. (1997) adopting the TRGB brightness calibration by Da Costa & Armandroff (1990). Our distance to the Leo I group, coupled with the relative distance Coma cluster-Leo I, provides a determination of H₀ at the Coma cluster: H₀=64_-9⁺¹⁰ Km s^-1 Mpc^-1.

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