# Using Surface Brightness Fluctuations to Study Nearby Satellite Galaxy Systems: Calibration and Methodology

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that ground-based surface brightness fluctuation measurements can reliably determine distances to nearby dwarf galaxies, including very low surface brightness ones, with an improved calibration tied to TRGB distances.

## Contribution

It provides the most robust empirical SBF calibration for blue, low-mass dwarf galaxies, validated with HST data and simulations, extending the method's applicability.

## Key findings

- Reliable SBF distances with 15% accuracy for low surface brightness dwarfs.
- Calibration credible over 0.3 to 0.8 mag in g-i color.
- Ground-based SBF is effective for characterizing nearby dwarf systems.

## Abstract

We explore the use of ground-based surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) measurements to constrain distances to nearby dwarf galaxies. Using archival CFHT Megacam imaging data for a sample of 27 nearby dwarfs, we demonstrate that reliable SBF measurements and distances accurate to 15\% are possible even for very low surface brightness (LSB, $\mu_{i0}>24$ mag/arcsec$^2$) galaxies with modest, $\sim$hour-long exposures with CFHT. Combining our sample with a recent sample of 7 dwarfs with SBF measured with HST from the literature, we provide the most robust empirical SBF calibration to-date for the blue colors expected for these low mass systems. Our calibration is credible over the color range $0.3\lesssim g-i\lesssim0.8$ mag. It is also the first SBF calibration tied completely to TRGB distances as each galaxy in the sample has a literature TRGB distance. We find that even though the intrinsic scatter in SBF increases for blue galaxies, the rms scatter in the calibration is still $\lesssim0.3$ mag. We verify our measurements by comparing with HST SBF measurements and detailed image simulations. We argue that ground-based SBF is a very useful tool for characterizing dwarf satellite systems and field dwarfs in the nearby, D$\lesssim$20 Mpc universe.