Determining the Hubble constant using giant extragalactic H ii regions and H ii galaxies

  1. Ricardo Chávez1,*,
  2. Elena Terlevich1,*,
  3. Roberto Terlevich1,2,*,
  4. Manolis Plionis1,3,
  5. Fabio Bresolin4,
  6. Spyros Basilakos5,6,
  7. Jorge Melnick7

Article first published online: 4 JUL 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2012.01299.x

Issue

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

Volume 425, Issue 1, pages L56–L60, September 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Chávez, R., Terlevich, E., Terlevich, R., Plionis, M., Bresolin, F., Basilakos, S. and Melnick, J. (2012), Determining the Hubble constant using giant extragalactic H ii regions and H ii galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 425: L56–L60. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2012.01299.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, AP 51 y 216, 72000, Puebla, Mexico

  2. 2

    Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Rd, CB3 OHA, Cambridge

  3. 3

    Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, National Observatory of Athens, Thessio, 11810 Athens, Greece

  4. 4

    Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, 96822 Honolulu, HI, USA

  5. 5

    Academy of Athens Research Center for Astronomy & Applied Mathematics, Soranou Efessiou 4, 11-527 Athens, Greece

  6. 6

    High Energy Physics Group, Department ECM, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain

  7. 7

    European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Santiago de Chile 19, Chile

* E-mail: et@ast.cam.ac.uk
Visiting Professor UAM, Madrid.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 20 AUG 2012
  2. Article first published online: 4 JUL 2012
  3. Accepted 2012 June 8. Received 2012 June 8; in original form 2012 March 28

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Keywords:

  • H ii regions;
  • cosmological parameters;
  • distance scale

ABSTRACT

We report the first results of a long-term programme aiming to provide accurate independent estimates of the Hubble constant (H0) using the L(Hβ)–σ distance estimator for giant extragalactic H ii regions (GEHR) and H ii galaxies.

We have used Very Large Telescope and Subaru high-dispersion spectroscopic observations of a local sample of H ii galaxies, identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) catalogue in order to redefine and improve the L(Hβ)–σ distance indicator and to determine the Hubble constant. To this end, we utilized as local calibration or ‘anchor’ of this correlation GEHR in nearby galaxies which have accurate distance measurements determined via primary indicators. Using our best sample of 69 nearby H ii galaxies and 23 GEHR in nine galaxies, we obtain H0= 74.3 ± 3.1 (statistical) ± 2.9 (systematic) km s−1 Mpc−1, in excellent agreement with, and independently confirming, the most recent Type Ia supernovae based results.

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