The red giant branch tip in the SDSS, PS1, JWST, NGRST, and <i>Euclid</i> photometric systems

We used synthetic photometry from Gaia DR3 BP and RP spectra for a large selected sample of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to derive the magnitude of the red giant branch (RGB) tip for these two galaxies in several passbands across a range of widely used optical photometric systems, including those of space missions that have not yet started their operations. The RGB tip is estimated by fitting a well motivated model to the RGB luminosity function (LF) within a fully Bayesian framework, allowing for a proper representation of the uncertainties of all the involved parameters and their correlations. By adopting the best available distance and interstellar extinction estimates, we provide a calibration of the RGB tip as a standard candle for the following passbands: Johnson-Kron-Cousins I (mainly used for validation purposes), Hubble Space Telescope F814W, Sloan Digital Sky Survey i and z , PanSTARRS 1 y , James Webb Space Telescope F090W, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Z087, and Euclid I E , with an accuracy within a few per cent, depending on the case. We used theoretical models to explore the trend of the absolute magnitude of the tip as a function of colour in the different passbands (beyond the range spanned by the LMC and SMC), as well as its dependency on age. These calibrations can be very helpful to obtain state-of-the-art RGB tip distance estimates to stellar systems in a very large range of distances directly from data in the natural photometric system of these surveys and/or missions, without recurring to photometric transformations. We have made the photometric catalogues publicly available for calibrations in additional passbands or for different approaches in the estimate of the tip, as well as for stellar populations and stellar astrophysics studies that may take advantage of large and homogeneous datasets of stars with magnitudes in 22 different passbands.

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Publication Details

Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Published
2024-08-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202449575
Citations
4
Primary Topic
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.03

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article

The red giant branch tip in the SDSS, PS1, JWST, NGRST, and Euclid photometric systems

M. Bellazzini, R. Pascale
4 citations
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
2.03
article

The red giant branch tip in the SDSS, PS1, JWST, NGRST, and Euclid photometric systems

M. Bellazzini, R. Pascale
article en
4 citations

Abstract

We used synthetic photometry from Gaia DR3 BP and RP spectra for a large selected sample of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) to derive the magnitude of the red giant branch (RGB) tip for these two galaxies in several passbands across a range of widely used optical photometric systems, including those of space missions that have not yet started their operations. The RGB tip is estimated by fitting a well motivated model to the RGB luminosity function (LF) within a fully Bayesian framework, allowing for a proper representation of the uncertainties of all the involved parameters and their correlations. By adopting the best available distance and interstellar extinction estimates, we provide a calibration of the RGB tip as a standard candle for the following passbands: Johnson-Kron-Cousins I (mainly used for validation purposes), Hubble Space Telescope F814W, Sloan Digital Sky Survey i and z , PanSTARRS 1 y , James Webb Space Telescope F090W, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Z087, and Euclid I E , with an accuracy within a few per cent, depending on the case. We used theoretical models to explore the trend of the absolute magnitude of the tip as a function of colour in the different passbands (beyond the range spanned by the LMC and SMC), as well as its dependency on age. These calibrations can be very helpful to obtain state-of-the-art RGB tip distance estimates to stellar systems in a very large range of distances directly from data in the natural photometric system of these surveys and/or missions, without recurring to photometric transformations. We have made the photometric catalogues publicly available for calibrations in additional passbands or for different approaches in the estimate of the tip, as well as for stellar populations and stellar astrophysics studies that may take advantage of large and homogeneous datasets of stars with magnitudes in 22 different passbands.

Astronomy and AstrophysicsVol. 691
Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio
Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, Institut sur la Nutrition et les Aliments Fonctionnels
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
2.03
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