On calibration of some distance scales in astrophysics

Vukotić, B. and Jurkovic, Mónika and Urošević, D. and Arbutina, B. (2014) On calibration of some distance scales in astrophysics. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, 440 (3). pp. 2026-2035. ISSN 0035-8711

Preview

Text 1403.1368.pdf Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (337kB) | Preview

Abstract

We present a method for distance calibration without using standard fitting proce- dures. Instead we use random resampling to reconstruct the probability density func- tion (PDF) of calibration data points in the fitting plane. The resulting PDF is then used to estimate distance-related properties. The method is applied to samples of ra- dio surface brightness to diameter (Σ − D) data for the Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) and planetary nebulae (PNe), and period-luminosity (P L) data for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) fundamental mode classical Cepheids. We argue that result- ing density maps can provide more accurate and more reliable calibrations than those obtained by standard linear fitting procedures. For the selected sample of the Galactic SNRs, the presented PDF method of distance calibration results in a smaller average distance fractional error of up to ≈ 16 percentage points. Similarly, the fractional error is smaller for up to ≈ 8 and ≈ 0.5 percentage points, for the samples of Galactic PNe and LMC Cepheids, respectively. In addition, we provide a PDF-based calibration data for each of the samples.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item