The Mid-Infrared Tully-Fisher Relation: Calibration of the SNIa Scale and Ho

TL;DR

This study calibrates the SNIa distance scale using mid-infrared photometry from Spitzer, leading to a refined estimate of the Hubble constant with improved precision and consistency across the sky.

Contribution

It introduces a new mid-infrared calibration of the SNIa scale using Spitzer data, enhancing the accuracy of cosmic distance measurements and Hubble constant estimation.

Findings

Mid-infrared calibration yields distances 2% greater than Ic band.

The new calibration supports a Hubble constant of 75.2 km/s/Mpc.

Mid-infrared photometry offers more stable and precise measurements.

Abstract

This paper builds on a calibration of the SNIa absolute distance scale begun with a core of distances based on the correlation between galaxy rotation rates and optical Ic band photometry. This new work extends the calibration through the use of mid-infrared photometry acquired at 3.6 microns with Spitzer Space Telescope. The great virtue of the satellite observations is constancy of the photometry at a level better than 1% across the sky. The new calibration is based on 39 individual galaxies and 8 clusters that have been the sites of well observed SNIa. The new 3.6 micron calibration is not yet as extensively based as the Ic band calibration but is already sufficient to justify a preliminary report. Distances based on the mid-infrared photometry are 2% greater in the mean than reported at Ic band. This difference is only marginally significant. The Ic band result is confirmed with only a small adjustment. Incorporating a 1% decrease in the LMC distance, the present study indicates Ho = 75.2 +/- 3.0 km/s/Mpc.