Optical SBFs of shell galaxies

TL;DR

This paper measures optical surface brightness fluctuations in distant shell galaxies using HST data, providing a new calibration for distance measurement and demonstrating the feasibility of optical SBFs at distances over 100 Mpc.

Contribution

It introduces the first calibration of M_SBF,F814W versus (F475W-F814W)0 based on stellar population models for shell galaxies observed with HST.

Findings

Optical SBFs can be measured at distances greater than 100 Mpc.

Theoretical SBF magnitudes are computed for a wide range of stellar ages and metallicities.

A new calibration relation for SBF magnitudes in the F814W filter is provided.

Abstract

We measure F814W Surface Brightness Fluctuations (SBFs) for a sample of distant shell galaxies observed with the Advanced Camera for Survey (ACS) on board of HST. To evaluate the distance at galaxies, theoretical SBF magnitudes for the ACS@HST filters are computed for single burst stellar populations covering a wide range of ages (t=1.5-14 Gyr) and metallicities (Z=0.008-0.04). Using these stellar population models we provide the first M_SBF,F814W versus (F475W-F814W)0 calibration. The results suggest that optical SBFs can be measured at d>100 Mpc using high resolution spatial optical data.