Toward a New Geometric Distance to the Active Galaxy NGC 4258. Iii. Final Results and the Hubble Constant

Humphreys, E. M. L.; Reid, M. J.; Moran, J. M.; Greenhill, L. J.; Argon, A. L.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/775/1/13

Cited by 274 publications

(201 citation statements)

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“…The recent determination of H 0 = 73.8 ± 2.4 km s −1 Mpc −1 by Riess et al (2011) yields a 1σ uncertainty of only 3.3%, including all identified sources of systematic uncertainty and calibration error. One important change in this analysis is a shift to Cepheid calibration based on the maser distances to NGC 4258 (Herrnstein et al, 1999;Humphreys et al, 2008Humphreys et al, , 2013 and on parallaxes to Galactic Cepheids measured with Hipparcos (van Leeuwen et al, 2007) and with the HST fine-guidance sensors (Benedict et al, 2007). These calibrations circumvent the statistical and systematic uncertainties in the LMC distance, and they directly calibrate the P − L relation in the metallicity range typical of calibrator galaxies, albeit with a sample of only ∼ 10 stars reaching an error-on-the-mean of 2.8% in the case of Milky Way parallaxes.…”

Section: Measurement Of the Hubble Constant At Z ≈mentioning

confidence: 99%

Observational probes of cosmic acceleration

et al. 2013

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The accelerating expansion of the universe is the most surprising cosmological discovery in many decades, implying that the universe is dominated by some form of "dark energy" with exotic physical properties, or that Einstein's theory of gravity breaks down on cosmological scales. The profound implications of cosmic acceleration have inspired ambitious efforts to understand its origin, with experiments that aim to measure the history of expansion and growth of structure with percent-level precision or higher. We review in detail the four most well established methods for making such measurements: Type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), weak gravitational lensing, and the abundance of galaxy clusters. We pay particular attention to the systematic uncertainties in these techniques and to strategies for controlling them at the level needed to exploit "Stage IV" dark energy facilities such as BigBOSS, LSST, Euclid, and WFIRST. We briefly review a number of other approaches including redshift-space distortions, the Alcock-Paczynski effect, and direct measurements of the Hubble constant H 0 . We present extensive forecasts for constraints on the dark energy equation of state and parameterized deviations from General Relativity, achievable with Stage III and Stage IV experimental programs that incorporate supernovae, BAO, weak lensing, and cosmic microwave background data. We also show the level of precision required for clusters or other methods to provide constraints competitive with those of these fiducial programs. We emphasize the value of a balanced program that employs several of the most powerful methods in combination, both to cross-check systematic uncertainties and to take advantage of complementary information. Surveys to probe cosmic acceleration produce data sets that support a wide range of scientific investigations, and they continue the longstanding astronomical tradition of mapping the universe in ever greater detail over ever larger scales.

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Section: Measurement Of the Hubble Constant At Z ≈mentioning

confidence: 99%

Observational probes of cosmic acceleration

et al. 2013

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“…[4] After this paper was submitted, Humphreys et al (2013) presented the final results of a longterm campaign to establish a new geometric maser distance to NGC 4258. Their revised distance of (7.60 ± 0.23) Mpc leads to a lowering of the Hubble constant, based on the Cepheid distance scale, to H 0 = (72.0 ± 3.0) km s −1 Mpc −1 , partially alleviating the tension between the Riess et al (2011) results and the Planck results on H 0 discussed in Sect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planck2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters

Ade¹,

Aghanim²,

Armitage-Caplan³

et al. 2014

A&A

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2,253

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This paper presents the first cosmological results based on Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature and lensing-potential power spectra. We find that the Planck spectra at high multipoles ( > ∼ 40) are extremely well described by the standard spatiallyflat six-parameter ΛCDM cosmology with a power-law spectrum of adiabatic scalar perturbations. Within the context of this cosmology, the Planck data determine the cosmological parameters to high precision: the angular size of the sound horizon at recombination, the physical densities of baryons and cold dark matter, and the scalar spectral index are estimated to be θ * = (1.04147 ± 0.00062) × 10 −2 , Ω b h 2 = 0.02205 ± 0.00028, Ω c h 2 = 0.1199 ± 0.0027, and n s = 0.9603 ± 0.0073, respectively (note that in this abstract we quote 68% errors on measured parameters and 95% upper limits on other parameters). For this cosmology, we find a low value of the Hubble constant, H 0 = (67.3 ± 1.2) km s −1 Mpc −1 , and a high value of the matter density parameter, Ω m = 0.315 ± 0.017. These values are in tension with recent direct measurements of H 0 and the magnituderedshift relation for Type Ia supernovae, but are in excellent agreement with geometrical constraints from baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) surveys. Including curvature, we find that the Universe is consistent with spatial flatness to percent level precision using Planck CMB data alone. We use high-resolution CMB data together with Planck to provide greater control on extragalactic foreground components in an investigation of extensions to the six-parameter ΛCDM model. We present selected results from a large grid of cosmological models, using a range of additional astrophysical data sets in addition to Planck and high-resolution CMB data. None of these models are favoured over the standard six-parameter ΛCDM cosmology. The deviation of the scalar spectral index from unity is insensitive to the addition of tensor modes and to changes in the matter content of the Universe. We find an upper limit of r 0.002 < 0.11 on the tensor-to-scalar ratio. There is no evidence for additional neutrino-like relativistic particles beyond the three families of neutrinos in the standard model. Using BAO and CMB data, we find N eff = 3.30 ± 0.27 for the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, and an upper limit of 0.23 eV for the sum of neutrino masses. Our results are in excellent agreement with big bang nucleosynthesis and the standard value of N eff = 3.046. We find no evidence for dynamical dark energy; using BAO and CMB data, the dark energy equation of state parameter is constrained to be w = −1.13 +0.13 −0.10 . We also use the Planck data to set limits on a possible variation of the fine-structure constant, dark matter annihilation and primordial magnetic fields. Despite the success of the six-parameter ΛCDM model in describing the Planck data at high multipoles, we note that this cosmology does not provide a good fit to the temperature power spectrum at low multipoles. T...

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“…The importance of this is best illustrated by the megamaser-based distance estimate to galaxy Messier 106 (NGC 4258), considered the most accurate distance estimate to date beyond the Local Group,±4%. Eschewing older data as obsolete, some researchers will consider only the most recent megamaser-based estimate, D=7.6±0.3 Mpc (Humphreys et al 2013). However, when all data are considered, it is evident that megamaser-based estimates for Messier 106 have undergone a systematic increase, from 6.4 Mpc (Miyoshi et al 1995) to 7.2 Mpc (Herrnstein et al 1999), and from 7.3 Mpc , based on private communication with E. M. L. Humphreys) to the current value of 7.6 Mpc by Humphreys et al (2013).…”

Section: How Ned-d Is Formatted and Made Accessiblementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eschewing older data as obsolete, some researchers will consider only the most recent megamaser-based estimate, D=7.6±0.3 Mpc (Humphreys et al 2013). However, when all data are considered, it is evident that megamaser-based estimates for Messier 106 have undergone a systematic increase, from 6.4 Mpc (Miyoshi et al 1995) to 7.2 Mpc (Herrnstein et al 1999), and from 7.3 Mpc , based on private communication with E. M. L. Humphreys) to the current value of 7.6 Mpc by Humphreys et al (2013). Only by having all available data can researchers make informed checks on estimates of the distances to particular galaxies, and estimates of the Hubble constant based on distances to numerous galaxies.…”

Section: How Ned-d Is Formatted and Made Accessiblementioning

confidence: 99%

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Redshift-Independent Distances in the Nasa/Ipac Extragalactic Database: Methodology, Content, and Use of Ned-D

Steer¹,

Madore

Mazzarella

et al. 2016

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Estimates of galaxy distances based on indicators that are independent of cosmological redshift are fundamental to astrophysics. Researchers use them to establish the extragalactic distance scale, to underpin estimates of the Hubble constant, and to study peculiar velocities induced by gravitational attractions that perturb the motions of galaxies with respect to the "Hubble flow" of universal expansion. In 2006 the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED) began making available a comprehensive compilation of redshift-independent extragalactic distance estimates. A decade later, this compendium of distances (NED-D) now contains more than 100,000 individual estimates based on primary and secondary indicators, available for more than 28,000 galaxies, and compiled from over 2000 references in the refereed astronomical literature. This paper describes the methodology, content, and use of NED-D, and addresses challenges to be overcome in compiling such distances. Currently, 75 different distance indicators are in use. We include a figure that facilitates comparison of the indicators with significant numbers of estimates in terms of the minimum, 25th percentile, median, 75th percentile, and maximum distances spanned. Brief descriptions of the indicators, including examples of their use in the database, are given in an appendix.

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Toward a New Geometric Distance to the Active Galaxy NGC 4258. Iii. Final Results and the Hubble Constant

Cited by 274 publications

References 19 publications

Observational probes of cosmic acceleration

Observational probes of cosmic acceleration

Planck2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters

Redshift-Independent Distances in the Nasa/Ipac Extragalactic Database: Methodology, Content, and Use of Ned-D

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