Related papers: Young and Intermediate-age Distance Indicators
Recent work on Ultra Long Period Cepheids (ULPCs) has suggested their usefulness as a distance indicator, but has not commented on their relationship as compared with other types of variable stars. In this work, we use Fourier analysis to…
The sample of known star clusters, the fundamental building blocks of galaxies, in the Milky Way is still extremely incomplete for objects beyond a distance of 1-2kpc. Many of the more distant and young clusters are compact and hidden…
Distance measurement is crucial to astronomy. Here we suggest a new conceptual method to measure the distance by using a local instrument. By engaging the double-slit interference and by considering the phase information of the light, the…
Considerable progress has been made in determining the Hubble constant over the past two decades. We discuss the cosmological context and importance of an accurate measurement of the Hubble constant, and focus on six high-precision…
An age--distance diagram for close-by young isolated neutron stars of different types is introduced and discussed. It is shown that such a diagram can be a useful tool for studying of populations of sources if their detectability strongly…
Type Ia supernovae are the best cosmological standard candles available. The intrinsic scatter of their decline-rate- and colour-corrected peak brightnesses in the Hubble diagram is within observational error limits, corresponding to an…
Classical Cepheids are the most popular distance indicators and tracers of young stellar populations. The key advantage is that they are bright and they can be easily identified in Local Group and Local Volume galaxies. Their evolutionary…
In the early nineties several teams started large scale systematic surveys of the Magellanic Clouds and the Galactic Bulge to search for microlensing effects. As a by product, these groups have created enormous time-series databases of…
Understanding the age and metallicity dependence of the absolute magnitude and colour of red clump (RC) stars is crucial for validating the accuracy of stellar evolution models and enhancing their reliability as a standard candle. However,…
Studies of star formation rely heavily on observations in the near-infrared, but they typically need information from other wavelengths for interpretation. We show that we can infer distances and estimate the membership of young stellar…
(ABRIDGED) We assess the systematic uncertainties in (young) cluster age, mass, and - to a lesser extent - extinction and metallicity determinations, based on broad-band imaging observations with the Hubble Space Telescope. Our aim here is…
Type Ia Supernovae are standard candles so their mean apparent magnitude has been exploited to learn about the redshift-distance relationship. Besides intrinsic scatter in this standard candle, additional source of scatter is caused by…
BVI photometry of the Magellanic Clouds collected during the OGLE-II microlensing experiment makes it possible to study in detail photometric properties of the "major" stellar distance indicators in the Magellanic Clouds. In addition to…
The aim of this article is to demonstrate the useful role that can be played by spectropolarimetric observations of young and evolved emission line stars that analyse the linearly polarized component in their spectra. At the time of…
Observables such as the luminosity function of galaxies, \Phi(M), the projected clustering of galaxies, w_p(r_p), and the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal, \Delta\Sigma, are often measured from galaxy redshift surveys assuming a fiducial…
The tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) provides a key standard candle for extragalactic distance measurements and for refining the Hubble constant. We test its robustness by quantifying how metallicity, $\alpha$-element enhancement, age,…
RR Lyrae stars have long been popular standard candles, but significant advances in methodology and technology have been made in recent years to increase their precision as distance indicators. We present multi-wavelength (optical…
We review some results of the past 12 years derived from optical and infrared photometry of Type Ia supernovae. A combination of optical and infrared photometry allows us to determine accurately the extinction along the line of sight. The…
The average near-infrared (K-band) luminosity of 238 Hipparcos red clump giants is derived and then used to measure the distance to the Galactic center. These Hipparcos red clump giants have been previously employed as I-band standard…
In a perturbed Universe, comoving tracers on a two-dimensional surface of constant observed redshift are at different proper time since the Big Bang. For tracers whose age is known independently, one can measure these perturbations of the…