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Register a new userUncertainties in The Interstellar Extinction Curve and the Cepheid Distance to M101
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David M. Nataf
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I revisit the Cepheid-distance determination to the nearby spiral galaxy M101 (Pinwheel Galaxy) of Shappee & Stanek (2011), in light of several recent investigations questioning the shape of the interstellar extinction curve at $lambda approx 8,000$ AA (i.e. I-band). I find that the relatively steep extinction ratio $A_{I}/E(V-I)=1.1450$ (Fitzpatrick & Massa 2007) is slightly favoured relative to $A_{I}/E(V-I)=1.2899$ (Fitzpatrick 1999) and significantly favoured relative the historically canonical value of $A_{I}/E(V-I)=1.4695$ (Cardelli et al. 1989). The steeper extinction curves, with lower values of $A_{I}/E(V-I)$, yield fits with reduced scatter, metallicity-dependences to the dereddened Cepheid luminosities that are closer to values inferred in the local group, and that are less sensitive to the choice of reddening cut imposed in the sample selection. The increase in distance modulus to M101 when using the preferred extinction curve is ${Delta}{mu} sim 0.06$ mag, resulting in an estimate of the distance modulus to M101 relative to the LMC of $ {Delta}mu_{rm{LMC}} approx 10.72 pm 0.03$ (stat). The best-fit metallicity-dependence is $dM_{I}/drm{[O/H]} approx (-0.38 pm 0.14$ (stat)) mag dex$^{-1}$.
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We present near infra-red light curves of supernova (SN) 2011fe in M101, including 34 epochs in H band starting fourteen days before maximum brightness in the B-band. The light curve data were obtained with the WIYN High-Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC). When the data are calibrated using templates of other Type Ia SNe, we derive an apparent H-band magnitude at the epoch of B-band maximum of 10.85 pm 0.04. This implies a distance modulus for M101 that ranges from 28.86 to 29.17 mag, depending on which absolute calibration for Type Ia SNe is used.
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