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SBF history and references

The history of the SBF method

This is a short, selective history of the SBF method, drawn from the papers listed below. It is not a complete review; see Blakeslee, Ajhar & Tonry (1999) and Cantiello & Blakeslee (2023, 2024) for that.

The idea (1988). John Tonry and Donald Schneider introduced the method in A new technique for measuring extragalactic distances (1988). They pointed out that the pixel-to-pixel fluctuations in the image of a galaxy whose stars are not resolved depend on the galaxy's distance, and can therefore be used to measure it.

First applications (1990–1994). Tonry, Ajhar & Luppino (1990) observed fluctuations in Virgo cluster galaxies. Tonry (1991) presented SBF as "a bridge from M31 to the Hubble constant". Ajhar & Tonry (1994) measured fluctuations in globular clusters to connect \(\bar M\) to stellar populations.

The I-band SBF Survey (1997–2001). Tonry, Blakeslee, Ajhar and Dressler carried out the ground-based SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances (Tonry et al. 1997, 2000, 2001). The final catalogue has 300 galaxies with a median distance-modulus error of 0.22 mag. It was used for the Hubble constant and for the flows of galaxies in the local universe.

Infrared SBF (1996–2003). Joseph Jensen, with Tonry and Luppino, developed the method in the near-infrared. There the fluctuations are brighter relative to the galaxy: Virgo ellipticals (Jensen, Luppino & Tonry 1996), the IR SBF method (Jensen, Tonry & Luppino 1998), the Hydra and Coma clusters (1999), and, with HST/NICMOS, an IR SBF Hubble constant (Jensen et al. 2001) and an IR calibration from 65 galaxies that also probes their stellar populations (Jensen et al. 2003).

Stellar populations (2001). Blakeslee, Vazdekis & Ajhar (2001) compared new observations with stellar population models of SBF, connecting \(\bar M\) to age and metallicity.

HST/ACS (2005–2010). John Blakeslee and collaborators brought SBF to the Advanced Camera for Surveys. They set out the reduction procedures (Jordán et al. 2004; Mei et al. 2005a) and calibration (Mei et al. 2005b), mapped the 3-D structure of the Virgo cluster (Mei et al. 2007), measured the Fornax–Virgo relative distance precisely (Blakeslee et al. 2009), and calibrated the F814W bandpass (Blakeslee et al. 2010).

HST/WFC3-IR and the Hubble constant (2015–2021). Jensen, Blakeslee and collaborators calibrated IR SBF for WFC3/IR, with advice on measurement (Jensen et al. 2015). They then measured distances to 63 massive early-type galaxies out to 100 Mpc, with a median uncertainty of 3.9% (Jensen et al. 2021). From these distances they derived \(H_0 = 73.3 \pm 0.7 \pm 2.4\) km/s/Mpc (Blakeslee et al. 2021).

Ground-based wide-field surveys (2018). Cantiello, Blakeslee and the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey measured and calibrated SBF distances for bright galaxies in Virgo and beyond (Cantiello et al. 2018).

Today. SBF is reviewed by Cantiello & Blakeslee (2023, 2024). They describe an approved JWST program to tie the SBF zeropoint to tip-of-the-red-giant-branch distances.

ELLIPROF in SBF analyses

ELLIPROF, originally developed by John Tonry as part of MONSTA, has been used as the galaxy-modelling component of SBF analyses. It fits and subtracts the smooth galaxy light, producing the galaxy-subtracted image that the SBF processing then works on. It does not itself measure the fluctuations or the distance. The evidence, in the papers' own words:

  • Tonry et al. (1997), the I-band SBF Survey, describe the step without naming the program: "we fit a galaxy model to the summed, cleaned, sky-subtracted galaxy image and subtract it".
  • Jordán et al. (2004), ACS Virgo Cluster Survey II: "Galaxies were modeled using the ELLIPROF program described in the SBF survey of Tonry et al. (1997)."
  • Mei et al. (2005a), ACS Virgo Cluster Survey IV: "We fit a smooth model for each galaxy in both filters using ELLIPROF (the isophotal fitting software that has been used for the SBF survey by Tonry et al. 1997) and then subtract the models from the original images."
  • Jensen et al. (2021), infrared SBF distances with HST/WFC3: "We made an elliptical model of each galaxy using the ELLIPROF routine"; after background subtraction the galaxies were fitted "using the ELLIPROF isophotal fitting routine a second time", and the models were saved "to normalize the SBF power spectrum". The paper lists ELLIPROF among its software.

Quotations are from the arXiv versions of these papers (astro-ph/9609113, astro-ph/0406433, astro-ph/0501325, 2105.08299). Other papers on this page are not claimed to have used ELLIPROF unless listed here. See ELLIPROF's role in SBF and About and credits.

References

All references were checked against their DOIs (Crossref) or arXiv records.

The method, reviews

  • Tonry, J. & Schneider, D. P. 1988, A new technique for measuring extragalactic distances, AJ, 96, 807. doi:10.1086/114847
  • Blakeslee, J. P., Ajhar, E. A. & Tonry, J. L. 1999, Distances from Surface Brightness Fluctuations, in Post-Hipparcos Cosmic Candles, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 181. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-4734-7_11
  • Cantiello, M. & Blakeslee, J. P. 2023, Surface Brightness Fluctuations, arXiv:2307.03116; published 2024 in The Hubble Constant Tension, Springer Series in Astrophysics and Cosmology, 155. doi:10.1007/978-981-99-0177-7_9

Early work and the I-band survey

  • Tonry, J. L., Ajhar, E. A. & Luppino, G. A. 1990, Observations of surface-brightness fluctuations in Virgo, AJ, 100, 1416. doi:10.1086/115606
  • Tonry, J. L. 1991, Surface brightness fluctuations: a bridge from M31 to the Hubble constant, ApJ, 373, L1. doi:10.1086/186037
  • Ajhar, E. A. & Tonry, J. L. 1994, Surface brightness fluctuations in globular clusters and stellar populations in galaxies, ApJ, 429, 557. doi:10.1086/174344
  • Tonry, J. L., Blakeslee, J. P., Ajhar, E. A. & Dressler, A. 1997, The SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances. I. Sample Selection, Photometric Calibration, and the Hubble Constant, ApJ, 475, 399. doi:10.1086/303576 (arXiv:astro-ph/9609113)
  • Tonry, J. L., Blakeslee, J. P., Ajhar, E. A. & Dressler, A. 2000, The Surface Brightness Fluctuation Survey of Galaxy Distances. II. Local and Large-Scale Flows, ApJ, 530, 625. doi:10.1086/308409
  • Tonry, J. L., Dressler, A., Blakeslee, J. P., et al. 2001, The SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances. IV. SBF Magnitudes, Colors, and Distances, ApJ, 546, 681. doi:10.1086/318301

Infrared SBF (Jensen and collaborators)

  • Jensen, J. B., Luppino, G. A. & Tonry, J. L. 1996, Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations in Virgo Cluster Elliptical Galaxies, ApJ, 468, 519. doi:10.1086/177711
  • Jensen, J. B., Tonry, J. L. & Luppino, G. A. 1998, Measuring Distances Using Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations, ApJ, 505, 111. doi:10.1086/306163
  • Jensen, J. B., Tonry, J. L. & Luppino, G. A. 1999, The Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances to the Hydra and Coma Clusters, ApJ, 510, 71. doi:10.1086/306569
  • Jensen, J. B., Tonry, J. L., Thompson, R. I., et al. 2001, The Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Hubble Constant, ApJ, 550, 503. doi:10.1086/319819
  • Jensen, J. B., Tonry, J. L., Barris, B. J., et al. 2003, Measuring Distances and Probing the Unresolved Stellar Populations of Galaxies Using Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations, ApJ, 583, 712. doi:10.1086/345430
  • Jensen, J. B., Blakeslee, J. P., Gibson, Z., et al. 2015, Measuring Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances with HST WFC3: Calibration and Advice, ApJ, 808, 91. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/808/1/91
  • Jensen, J. B., Blakeslee, J. P., Ma, C.-P., et al. 2021, Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances for MASSIVE and Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies, ApJS, 255, 21. doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac01e7 (arXiv:2105.08299)

Stellar populations, HST/ACS and the Hubble constant (Blakeslee and collaborators)

  • Blakeslee, J. P., Vazdekis, A. & Ajhar, E. A. 2001, Stellar populations and surface brightness fluctuations: new observations and models, MNRAS, 320, 193. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.03937.x
  • Jordán, A., Blakeslee, J. P., Peng, E. W., et al. 2004, The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. II. Data Reduction Procedures, ApJS, 154, 509. doi:10.1086/422977 (arXiv:astro-ph/0406433)
  • Mei, S., Blakeslee, J. P., Tonry, J. L., et al. 2005a, The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. IV. Data Reduction Procedures for Surface Brightness Fluctuation Measurements with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, ApJS, 156, 113. doi:10.1086/426544 (arXiv:astro-ph/0501325)
  • Mei, S., Blakeslee, J. P., Tonry, J. L., et al. 2005b, The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. V. Surface Brightness Fluctuation Calibration for Giant and Dwarf Early-Type Galaxies, ApJ, 625, 121. doi:10.1086/429554
  • Mei, S., Blakeslee, J. P., Côté, P., et al. 2007, The ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. XIII. SBF Distance Catalog and the Three-dimensional Structure of the Virgo Cluster, ApJ, 655, 144. doi:10.1086/509598
  • Blakeslee, J. P., Jordán, A., Mei, S., et al. 2009, The ACS Fornax Cluster Survey. V. Measurement and Recalibration of Surface Brightness Fluctuations and a Precise Value of the Fornax–Virgo Relative Distance, ApJ, 694, 556. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/694/1/556
  • Blakeslee, J. P., Cantiello, M., Mei, S., et al. 2010, Surface Brightness Fluctuations in the Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC F814W Bandpass and an Update on Galaxy Distances, ApJ, 724, 657. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/724/1/657
  • Cantiello, M., Blakeslee, J. P., Ferrarese, L., et al. 2018, The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XVIII. Measurement and Calibration of Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances for Bright Galaxies in Virgo (and Beyond), ApJ, 856, 126. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aab043
  • Blakeslee, J. P., Jensen, J. B., Ma, C.-P., Milne, P. A. & Greene, J. E. 2021, The Hubble Constant from Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances, ApJ, 911, 65. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abe86a

Isophotes and boxy/disky shapes (used on other pages)

  • Jedrzejewski, R. I. 1987, CCD surface photometry of elliptical galaxies – I. Observations, reduction and results, MNRAS, 226, 747. doi:10.1093/mnras/226.4.747
  • Kormendy, J. & Bender, R. 1996, A Proposed Revision of the Hubble Sequence for Elliptical Galaxies, ApJ, 464, L119. doi:10.1086/310095
  • Kormendy, J., Fisher, D. B., Cornell, M. E. & Bender, R. 2009, Structure and Formation of Elliptical and Spheroidal Galaxies, ApJS, 182, 216. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/182/1/216