A 2.4% DETERMINATION OF THE LOCAL VALUE OF THE HUBBLE CONSTANT

作者：Riess, Adam G.^*; Macri, Lucas M.; Hoffmann, Samantha L.; Scolnic, Dan; Casertano, Stefano; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Tucker, Brad E.; Reid, Mark J.; Jones, David O.; Silverman, Jeffrey M.; Chornock, Ryan; Challis, Peter; Yuan, Wenlong; Brown, Peter J.; Foley, Ryan J.

来源：Astrophysical Journal, 2016, 826(1): 56.

DOI：10.3847/0004-637X/826/1/56

• cosmological parameters
• cosmology: observations
• distance scale
• galaxies: distances and redshifts

We use the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to reduce the uncertainty in the local value of the Hubble constant from 3.3% to 2.4%. The bulk of this improvement comes from new near-infrared (NIR) observations of Cepheid variables in 11 host galaxies of recent type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), more than doubling the sample of reliable SNe. Ia having a Cepheid-calibrated distance to a total of 19; these in turn leverage the magnitude-redshift relation based on similar to 300 SNe Iaatz < 0.15 All 19 hosts as well as the megamaser system NGC 4258 have been observed with WFC3 in the optical and NIR, thus nullifying cross-instrument zeropoint errors in the relative distance estimates from Cepheids. Other noteworthy improvements include a 33% reduction in the systematic uncertainty in the maser distance to NGC 4258, a larger sample of Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a more robust distance to the LMC based on late-type detached eclipsing binaries (DEBs), HST observations of Cepheids in M31, and new HST-based trigonometric parallaxes for Milky Way (MW) Cepheids. We consider four geometric distance calibrations of Cepheids: (i) megamasers in NGC 4258, (ii) 8 DEBs in the LMC, (iii) 15 MW Cepheids with parallaxes measured with HST/FGS, HST/WFC3 spatial scanning and/or Hipparcos, and (iv) 2 DEBs in M31. The Hubble constant from each is 72.25 +/- 2.51, 72.04 +/- 2.67, 76.18 +/- 2.37, and 74.50 +/- 3.27 kms(-1) Mpc(-1), respectively. Our best estimate of H-0 = 73.24 +/- 1.74 kms(-1) Mpc(-1) combines the anchors NGC 4258, MW, and LMC, yielding a 2.4% determination (all quoted uncertainties include fully propagated statistical and systematic components). This value is 3.4 sigma higher than 66.93 +/- 0.62 kms(-1) Mpc(-1) predicted by Lambda CDM with 3 neutrino flavors having a mass of 0.06 eV and the new Planck data, but the discrepancy reduces to 2.1 sigma relative to the prediction of 69.3 +/- 0.7 kms(-1) Mpc(-1) based on the comparably precise combination of WMAP+ACT+SPT+BAO observations, suggesting that systematic uncertainties in CMB radiation measurements may play a role in the tension. If we take the conflict between Planck high-redshift measurements and our local determination of H-0 at face value, one plausible explanation could involve an additional source of dark radiation in the early universe in the range of Delta N-eff approximate to 0.4-1. We anticipate further significant improvements in H-0 from upcoming parallax measurements of long-period MW Cepheids.

• 出版日期2016-7-20