The Binary Ballet: Mapping Local Expansion Around M81 & M82

TL;DR

This paper refines distance measurements for galaxies in the M81 complex, analyzes their spatial and dynamical properties, and estimates the Hubble Constant and total mass, revealing a planar distribution and improved cosmological parameters.

Contribution

It provides new high-precision TRGB distances for nine galaxies, analyzes the group's dynamics and structure, and constrains the Hubble Constant and total mass using updated models.

Findings

Galaxies are distributed in a flattened, planar structure.

The Hubble Constant is estimated at 63 ± 6 km/s/Mpc.

The total mass of the M81 complex is approximately 2.28 × 10^{12} solar masses.

Abstract

This study of the M81 complex and its Hubble flow delivers new and improved Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB)-based distances for nine member galaxies, yielding a total of 58 galaxies with high-precision TRGB distances. With those, we perform a systematic analysis of the group's dynamics in the core and its embedding in the local cosmic environment. Our analysis confirms that the satellite galaxies of the M81 complex exhibit a flattened, planar distribution almost perpendicular to the supergalactic pole and thus aligned with a larger-scale filamentary structure in the Local Universe. We demonstrate that the properties of the group's barycentre are robustly constrained by the two brightest members, M81 and M82, and that correcting heliocentric velocities for the solar motion in the Local Group decreases the velocity dispersion of the group. Then applying minor and major infall models, we fit the local Hubble flow to constrain the Hubble Constant and the total mass of the M81 complex. The joint best-fit parameters from both models yield $H_0 = \left(63 \pm 6 \right)$ km/s/Mpc and total mass of $(2.28\pm 0.49) \times 10^{12} M_{\odot}$. We thus arrive at an increased mass estimate compared to prior work but reach a higher consistency with virial, $(2.74 \pm 0.36)\times 10^{12}\,M_\odot$, and projected-mass estimates, $(3.11 \pm 0.69)\times 10^{12} M_\odot$. Moreover, our $H_0$ estimate shows an agreement with Planck, consistent with other TRGB-based Local-Universe inferences of $H_0$ and still within a 2-$\sigma$ agreement with Cepheid-based Local-Universe probes.