Astrophysical Distance Scale IV. Preliminary Zero-Point Calibration of the JAGB Method in the HST/WFC3-IR Broad J-Band (F110W) Filter

2021/12/13 by Barry F. Madore, Wendy L. Freedman, Abigail J. Lee +1 · 8 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astrophysics #Distance modulus #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Metallicity #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Red-giant branch #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · open access · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac426a

published in The Astrophysical Journal 926(2), 153 (IOP Publishing) · Accepted to the ApJ

arxiv created 2021/12/13 · openalex publication_date 2022/02/01 · arxiv updated 2022/03/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We present an absolute calibration of the J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) method using published photometry of resolved stars in 20 nearby galaxies observed with HST using the WFC3-IR camera and the F110W (Broad J-Band) filter. True distance moduli for each of the galaxies are based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) method as uniformly determined by Dalcanton et al. (2012). From a composite color-magnitude diagram composed of over 6 million stars, leading to a sample of 453 JAGB stars in these galaxies, we find M_F110WJAGB = -5.77 +/- 0.02 mag(statistical error on the mean). The external scatter seen in a comparison of the individual TRGB and the JAGB moduli is +/-0.081 mag (or 4% in distance). Some of this scatter can be attributed to small-number statistics arising from the sparse JAGB populations found in the generally low-luminosity galaxies that comprise the particular sample studied here. However, if this inter-method scatter is shared equitably between the JAGB and TRGB methods that implies that each are good to +/-0.06 mag, or better than 3% in distance.

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