The Carnegie Hubble Program

We present an overview of and preliminary results from an ongoing comprehensive program that has a goal of determining the Hubble constant to a systematic accuracy of 2%. As part of this program, we are currently obtaining 3.6 micron data using the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on Spitzer, and the program is designed to include JWST in the future. We demonstrate that the mid-infrared period-luminosity relation for Cepheids at 3.6 microns is the most accurate means of measuring Cepheid distances to date. At 3.6 microns, it is possible to minimize the known remaining systematic uncertainties in the Cepheid extragalactic distance scale. We discuss the advantages of 3.6 micron observations in minimizing systematic effects in the Cepheid calibration of the Hubble constant including the absolute zero point, extinction corrections, and the effects of metallicity on the colors and magnitudes of Cepheids. We are undertaking three independent tests of the sensitivity of the mid-IR Cepheid Leavitt Law to metallicity, which when combined will allow a robust constraint on the effect. Finally, we are providing a new mid-IR Tully-Fisher relation for spiral galaxies

Cool Companions to White Dwarf Stars from the Two Micron All Sky Survey All Sky Data Release

We present the culmination of our near-infrared survey of the optically spectroscopically identified white dwarf stars from the McCook and Sion catalog, conducted using photometric data from the Two Micron All Sky Survey final All Sky Data Release. The color selection technique, which identifies candidate binaries containing a white dwarf and a low-mass stellar (or substellar) companion via their distinctive locus in the near-infrared color-color diagram, is demonstrated to be simple to apply and to yield candidates with a high rate of subsequent confirmation. We recover 105 confirmed binaries, and identify 27 firm candidates (19 of which are new to this work) and 21 tentative candidates (17 of which are new to this work) from the 2MASS data. Only a small number of candidates from our survey have likely companion spectral types later than M5, none of which is an obvious L-type (i.e., potential brown dwarf) companion. Only one previously known white dwarf + brown dwarf binary is detected. This result is discussed in the context of the 2MASS detection limits, as well as other recent observational surveys that suggest a very low rate of formation (or survival) for binary stars with extreme mass ratios

The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: I. First-Epoch LMC Data

We present the first mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids. Single-epoch observations of 70 Cepheids were extracted from Spitzer IRAC observations at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns, serendipitously obtained during the SAGE (Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution) imaging survey of the LMC. All four mid-infrared PL relations have nearly identical slopes over the period range 6 - 88 days, with a small scatter of only +/-0.16 mag independent of period for all four of these wavelengths. We emphasize that differential reddening is not contributing significantly to the observed scatter, given the nearly two orders of magnitude reduced sensitivity of the mid-IR to extinction compared to the optical. Future observations, filling in the light curves for these Cepheids, should noticeably reduce the residual scatter. These attributes alone suggest that mid-infrared PL relations will provide a practical means of significantly improving the accuracy of Cepheid distances to nearby galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Anchors for the Cosmic Distance Scale: the Cepheid QZ Normae in the Open Cluster NGC 6067

Cepheids are key to establishing the cosmic distance scale. Therefore it's important to assess the viability of QZ Nor, V340 Nor, and GU Nor as calibrators for Leavitt's law via their purported membership in the open cluster NGC 6067. The following suite of evidence confirms that QZ Nor and V340 Nor are members of NGC 6067, whereas GU Nor likely lies in the foreground: (i) existing radial velocities for QZ Nor and V340 Nor agree with that established for the cluster (-39.4+-1.2 km/s) to within 1 km/s, whereas GU Nor exhibits a markedly smaller value; (ii) a steep velocity-distance gradient characterizes the sight-line toward NGC 6067, thus implying that objects sharing common velocities are nearly equidistant; (iii) a radial profile constructed for NGC 6067 indicates that QZ Nor is within the cluster bounds, despite being 20' from the cluster center; (iv) new BVJH photometry for NGC 6067 confirms the cluster lies d=1.75+-0.10 kpc distant, a result that matches Wesenheit distances computed for QZ Nor/V340 Nor using the Benedict et al. (2007, HST parallaxes) calibration. QZ Nor is a cluster Cepheid that should be employed as a calibrator for the cosmic distance scale.Comment: To appear in ApS

The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: II. Second-Epoch LMC Data

We present revised and improved mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids based on double-epoch data of 70 Cepheids observed by Spitzer at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0um. The observed scatter at all wavelengths is found to decrease from +/-0.17 mag to +/-0.14 mag, which is fully consistent with the prediction that the total scatter is made up of roughly equal contributions from random sampling of the light curve and nearly-uniform samplings of stars across the instability strip. It is calculated that the Cepheids in this sample have a full amplitude of about 0.4 mag and that their fully-sampled, time-averaged magnitudes should eventually reveal mid-infrared PL relations that each have intrinsic scatter at most at the +/-0.12 mag level, and as low as +/-0.08 mag after correcting for the tilt of the LMC.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, 1 data tabl

Erratum: The Carnegie Hubble Program: The Leavitt Law at 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron in the Large Magellanic Cloud (2011, APJ, 743, 76)

Due to an error at the publisher, an incorrect version of Table 3 appeared in the published article. The updated version of Table 3 is given

The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation (The Leavitt Law) at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: III. Cepheids in NGC 6822

We present the first application of mid-infrared Period-Luminosity relations to the determination of a Cepheid distance beyond the Magellanic Clouds. Using archival IRAC imaging data on NGC 6822 from Spitzer we were able to measure single-epoch magnitudes for sixteen long-period (10 to 100-day) Cepheids at 3.6um, fourteen at 4.5um, ten at 5.8um and four at 8.0um. The measured slopes and the observed scatter both conform to the relations previously measured for the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids, and fitting to those relations gives apparent distance moduli of mod{3.6} = 23.57 +/- 0.06, mod{4.5} = 23.55 +/- 0.07, mod{5.8} = 23.60 +/- 0.09 and mod{8.0} = 23.51 +/-0.08 mag. A multi-wavelength fit to the new IRAC moduli, and previously published BVRIJHK moduli, allows for a final correction for interstellar reddening and gives a true distance modulus of 23.49 +/- 0.03 mag with E(B-V) = 0.26 mag, corresponding to a metric distance of 500 +/-8 kpc.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 2 figure

The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation (The Leavitt Law) at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: IV. Cepheids in IC 1613

We present mid-infrared Period-Luminosity relations for Cepheids in the Local Group galaxy IC1613. Using archival IRAC imaging data from Spitzer we were able to measure single-epoch magnitudes for five, 7 to 50-day, Cepheids at 3.6 and 4.5 microns. When fit to the calibrating relations, measured for the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids, the data give apparent distance moduli of 24.29 +/- 0.07 and 24.28 +/- 0.07 at 3.6 and 4.5 microns, respectively. A multi-wavelength fit to previously published BVRIJHK apparent moduli and the two IRAC moduli gives a true distance modulus of 24.27 +/- 0.02 mag with E(B-V) = 0.08 mag, and a corresponding metric distance of 715 kpc. Given that these results are based on single-phase observations derived from exposures having total integration times of only 1,000 sec/pixel we suggest that Cepheids out to about 2 Mpc are accessible to Spitzer with modest integration times during its warm mission. We identify the main limiting factor to this method to be crowding/contamination induced by the ubiquitous population of infrared-bright AGB stars.Comment: Accepted to ApJ December 2008: 9 pages, 3 figure

The Second-Generation Guide Star Catalog: Description and Properties

The GSC-II is an all-sky database of objects derived from the uncompressed DSS that the STScI has created from the Palomar and UK Schmidt survey plates and made available to the community. Like its predecessor (GSC-I), the GSC-II was primarily created to provide guide star information and observation planning support for HST. This version, however, is already employed at some of the ground-based new-technology telescopes such as GEMINI, VLT, and TNG, and will also be used to provide support for the JWST and Gaia space missions as well as LAMOST, one of the major ongoing scientific projects in China. Two catalogs have already been extracted from the GSC-II database and released to the astronomical community. A magnitude-limited (R=18.0) version, GSC2.2, was distributed soon after its production in 2001, while the GSC2.3 release has been available for general access since 2007. The GSC2.3 catalog described in this paper contains astrometry, photometry, and classification for 945,592,683 objects down to the magnitude limit of the plates. Positions are tied to the ICRS; for stellar sources, the all-sky average absolute error per coordinate ranges from 0.2" to 0.28" depending on magnitude. When dealing with extended objects, astrometric errors are 20% worse in the case of galaxies and approximately a factor of 2 worse for blended images. Stellar photometry is determined to 0.13-0.22 mag as a function of magnitude and photographic passbands (B,R,I). Outside of the galactic plane, stellar classification is reliable to at least 90% confidence for magnitudes brighter than R=19.5, and the catalog is complete to R=20.Comment: 52 pages, 33 figures, to be published in AJ August 200

The Konkoly Blazhko Survey: Is light-curve modulation a common property of RRab stars?

A systematic survey to establish the true incidence rate of the Blazhko modulation among short-period, fundamental-mode, Galactic field RR Lyrae stars has been accomplished. The Konkoly Blazhko Survey (KBS) was initiated in 2004. Since then more than 750 nights of observation have been devoted to this project. A sample of 30 RRab stars was extensively observed, and light-curve modulation was detected in 14 cases. The 47% occurrence rate of the modulation is much larger than any previous estimate. The significant increase of the detected incidence rate is mostly due to the discovery of small-amplitude modulation. Half of the Blazhko variables in our sample show modulation with so small amplitude that definitely have been missed in the previous surveys. We have found that the modulation can be very unstable in some cases, e.g. RY Com showed regular modulation only during one part of the observations while during two seasons it had stable light curve with abrupt, small changes in the pulsation amplitude. This type of light-curve variability is also hard to detect in other Survey's data. The larger frequency of the light-curve modulation of RRab stars makes it even more important to find the still lacking explanation of the Blazhko phenomenon. The validity of the [Fe/H](P,phi_{31}) relation using the mean light curves of Blazhko variables is checked in our sample. We have found that the formula gives accurate result for small-modulation-amplitude Blazhko stars, and this is also the case for large-modulation-amplitude stars if the light curve has complete phase coverage. However, if the data of large-modulation-amplitude Blazhko stars are not extended enough (e.g. < 500 data points from < 15 nights), the formula may give false result due to the distorted shape of the mean light curve used.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 14 pages, 7 Figure