The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. I. An Independent Approach to the Extragalactic Distance Scale Using Only Population II Distance Indicators

Abstract

We present an overview of the Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program, an ongoing program to obtain a 3% measurement of the Hubble constant (H <SUB>0</SUB>) using alternative methods to the traditional Cepheid distance scale. We aim to establish a completely independent route to H <SUB>0</SUB> using RR Lyrae variables, the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB), and Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). This alternative distance ladder can be applied to galaxies of any Hubble type, of any inclination, and, using old stars in low-density environments, is robust to the degenerate effects of metallicity and interstellar extinction. Given the relatively small number of SNe Ia host galaxies with independently measured distances, these properties provide a great systematic advantage in the measurement of H <SUB>0</SUB> via the distance ladder. Initially, the accuracy of our value of H <SUB>0</SUB> will be set by the five Galactic RR Lyrae calibrators with Hubble Space Telescope Fine-Guidance Sensor parallaxes. With Gaia, both the RR Lyrae zero-point and TRGB method will be independently calibrated, the former with at least an order of magnitude more calibrators and the latter directly through parallax measurement of tip red giants. As the first end-to-end “distance ladder” completely independent of both Cepheid variables and the Large Magellanic Cloud, this path to H <SUB>0</SUB> will allow for the high-precision comparison at each rung of the traditional distance ladder that is necessary to understand tensions between this and other routes to H <SUB>0</SUB>. <P />Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with programs #13472 and #13691.