Asteroseismology, standard candles and the Hubble Constant: what is the role of asteroseismology in the era of precision cosmology?

Abstract

Abstract. Classical Cepheids form one of the foundations of modern cosmology and the extragalactic distance scale, however, cosmic microwave background observations measure cosmological parameters and indirectly the Hubble Constant, H0, to unparalleled precision. The coming decade will provide opportunities to measure H0 to 2% uncertainty thanks to the GAIA satellite, JWST, ELTs and other telescopes using Cepheids and other standard candles. In this work, we discuss the upcoming role for variable stars and asteroseismology in calibrating the distance scale and measuring H0 and what problems exist in understanding these stars that will feedback on these measurements.

Evidence for photometric contamination in key observations of Cepheids in the benchmark galaxy IC 1613

“…Ultimately, further characterization of the effects reiterated here could facilitate efforts to ease the putative tension between the Planck and Cepheid-based suite of cosmological parameters 11 (Neilson et al 2014, and discussion therein).…”