Extragalactic Planetary Nebulae (xPNe). Determining Distances out to 100 Mpc and the Renaissance of the PN Luminosity Function Method
Abstract
The discrepancy of the Hubble parameter H0 as measured from the cosmic microwave background versus that found from traditional distance ladder measurements has produced considerable discussion about the need for another force in cosmology. However the significance of the discrepancy depends on understanding the systematic associated with crowding, metallicity effects, and extinction of the stellar tracers. Thus additional precision distance indicators in the local universe are desperately needed for investigating the H0 tension. The analysis of MUSE archival data makes the case that the Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) has become such an indicator, as the method can reach distances comparable to HST distances of Cepheid at a fraction of a cost, in terms of telescope time and ground-based. With new wide-field spectroscopic facilities it becomes possible to measure distances to early-type galaxies (ETGs) using the PNLF out to 100 Mpc distance, achieving a precise estimate for the H0 value which is independent of the Type Ia supernova calibration, with only single-epoch measurements.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.16893,
title = {Extragalactic Planetary Nebulae (xPNe). Determining Distances out to 100 Mpc and the Renaissance of the PN Luminosity Function Method},
author = {Magda Arnaboldi and Ortwin Gerhard and Martin Roth and Peter M. Weilbacher and Souradeep Bhattacharya and Johanna Hartke and Chiara Spiniello and Azlizan Soemitro and Claudia Pulsoni and Lucas Valenzuela and George Jacoby and Robin Ciardullo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.16893},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
2 pages, 1 figure, submitted to the ESO Expanding Horizons call in December 2025