No Arabic abstract
Relativistic corrections are estimated for classical Cepheids and the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB stars), to enable future unbiased 1% measurements of Hubbles constant, $H_0$. We considered four effects: $K-$corrections, time-dilation, the apparent change of host dust extinction due to non-comoving reference frames, and the change of observed color due to redshift. Extinction-dependent $K-$corrections were computed using stellar atmosphere models applicable to giant stars for $0.005 < z < 0.03$ in HST, JWST, and 2MASS filters. The optical-NIR Wesenheit function advantageously combines filters with oppositely signed $K-$corrections and avoids complications due to host extinction. For TRGB stars, the JWST/NIRCAM F277W filter combines insensitivity to reddening with $K-$corrections $<1$% at Coma cluster distances. Missing corrections for host extinction due to circumgalactic or circumstellar material are discussed as potential systematics for TRGB distances although their impacts are insufficient to explain differences between $H_0$ based on Cepheid or TRGB supernova calibrations. All stellar standard candles require relativistic corrections to achieve an unbiased 1% $H_0$ measurement in the future. The combined relativistic correction involving $K$, redshift-Leavitt bias, and the redshift-dependence of the Wesenheit function yield an increase of the Cepheid-based $H_0$ by $0.45 pm 0.05$ km/s/Mpc to $73.65 pm 1.30$ km/s/Mpc and raises the tension with the {it Planck} value from $4.2sigma$ to $4.4sigma$. For TRGB stars, we estimate a $sim 0.5%$ increase of $H_0$ reported by Freedman et al. (to $70.2pm1.7$km/s/Mpc) and a small decrease by $-0.15%$ for $H_0$ reported by Anand et al. (to $71.4 pm 1.8$km/s/Mpc). The opposite sign of these corrections is due to different reddening systematics and reduces the difference between the studies by $sim 0.46$km/s/Mpc.[abridged]
The most precise local measurements of $H_0$ rely on observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) coupled with Cepheid distances to SN Ia host galaxies. Recent results have shown tension comparing $H_0$ to the value inferred from CMB observations assuming $Lambda$CDM, making it important to check for potential systematic uncertainties in either approach. To date, precise local $H_0$ measurements have used SN Ia distances based on optical photometry, with corrections for light curve shape and colour. Here, we analyse SNe Ia as standard candles in the near-infrared (NIR), where intrinsic variations in the supernovae and extinction by dust are both reduced relative to the optical. From a combined fit to 9 nearby calibrator SNe with host Cepheid distances from Riess et al. (2016) and 27 SNe in the Hubble flow, we estimate the absolute peak $J$ magnitude $M_J = -18.524;pm;0.041$ mag and $H_0 = 72.8;pm;1.6$ (statistical) $pm$ 2.7 (systematic) km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$. The 2.2 $%$ statistical uncertainty demonstrates that the NIR provides a compelling avenue to measuring SN Ia distances, and for our sample the intrinsic (unmodeled) peak $J$ magnitude scatter is just $sim$0.10 mag, even without light curve shape or colour corrections. Our results do not vary significantly with different sample selection criteria, though photometric calibration in the NIR may be a dominant systematic uncertainty. Our findings suggest that tension in the competing $H_0$ distance ladders is likely not a result of supernova systematics that could be expected to vary between optical and NIR wavelengths, like dust extinction. We anticipate further improvements in $H_0$ with a larger calibrator sample of SNe Ia with Cepheid distances, more Hubble flow SNe Ia with NIR light curves, and better use of the full NIR photometric data set beyond simply the peak $J$-band magnitude.
Soon the number of type Ia supernova (SN) measurements should exceed 100,000. Understanding the effect of weak lensing by matter structures on the supernova brightness will then be more important than ever. Although SN lensing is usually seen as a source of systematic noise, we will show that it can be in fact turned into signal. More precisely, the non-Gaussianity introduced by lensing in the SN Hubble diagram dispersion depends rather sensitively on the amplitude sigma8 of the matter power spectrum. By exploiting this relation, we are able to predict constraints on sigma8 of 7% (3%) for a catalog of 100,000 (500,000) SNe of average magnitude error 0.12 without having to assume that such intrinsic dispersion is known a priori. The intrinsic dispersion has been assumed to be Gaussian; possible intrinsic non-Gaussianities in the dataset (due to the SN themselves and/or to other transients) could be potentially dealt with by means of additional nuisance parameters describing higher moments of the intrinsic dispersion distribution function. This method is independent of and complementary to the standard methods based on CMB, cosmic shear or cluster abundance observables.
Gravitational waves detected from well-localized inspiraling binaries would allow to determine, directly and independently, both binary luminosity and redshift. In this case, such systems could behave as standard candles providing an excellent probe of cosmic distances up to $z <0.1$ and thus complementing other indicators of cosmological distance ladder.
We show that future observations of binary neutron star systems with electromagnetic counterparts together with the traditional probes of low- and high-redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) can help resolve the Hubble tension. The luminosity distance inferred from these probes and its scatter depend on the underlying cosmology. By using the gravitational lensing of light or gravitational waves emitted by, and peculiar motion of, these systems we derive constraints on the sum of neutrino masses, the equation of state of dark energy parametrized in the form $w_0 + w_a (1-a)$, along with the Hubble constant and cold dark matter density in the universe. We show that even after marginalizing over poorly constrained physical quantities, such as the sum of neutrino masses and the nature of dark energy, low-redshift gravitational-wave observations, in combination with SNe Ia, have the potential to rule out new physics as the underlying cause of the Hubble tension at $gtrsim 5.5sigma$.
We introduce a new distance determination method using carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars (CS) as standard candles and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) as the fundamental calibrators. We select the samples of CS from the ($(J-K_{s})_0$, $J_0$) colour-magnitude diagrams, as, in this combination of filters, CS are bright and easy to identify. We fit the CS $J$-band luminosity functions using a Lorentzian distribution modified to allow the distribution to be asymmetric. We use the parameters of the best-fit distribution to determine if the CS luminosity function of a given galaxy resembles that of the LMC or SMC. Based on this resemblance, we use either the LMC or SMC as the calibrator and estimate the distance to the given galaxy using the median $J$ magnitude ($overline{J}$) of the CS samples. We apply this new method to the two Local Group galaxies NGC 6822 and IC 1613. We find that NGC 6822 has an LMC-like CS luminosity function while IC 1613 is more SMC-like. Using the values for the median absolute $J$ magnitude for the LMC and SMC found in Paper I we find a distance modulus of $mu_{0}=23.54pm0.03$ (stat) for NGC 6822 and $mu_{0}=24.34pm0.05$ (stat) for IC 1613.