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Spiral galaxy distance indicators based on near-infrared photometry
We compare two methods of distance determination to spiral galaxiesusing optical/near-infrared (NIR) observations, the (I-K) versusMK colour-absolute magnitude (CM) relation and the I- andK-band Tully-Fisher relation (TFR). Dust-free colours and NIR absolutemagnitudes greatly enhance the usefulness of the NIR CM relation as adistance indicator for moderately to highly inclined spiral galaxies inthe field (inclinations between ~80 deg and 90 deg) by avoidingcontamination by dust the scatter in the CM relation is significantlyreduced, compared with similar galaxy samples published previously. TheCM relation can be used to determine distances to field spiral galaxieswith MK>-25.5, to at least MK~-20. Our results,supplemented with previously published observations for which we can -to some degree - control the effects of extinction, are consistent witha universal nature of the CM relation for field spiral galaxies.High-resolution observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope canprovide a powerful tool to calibrate the relation and extend the usefuldistance range by more than a factor of 2 compared with ground-basedobservations. The intrinsic scatter in the NIR CM relation in theabsolute K-band magnitudes is ~0.5mag, yielding a lower limit to theaccuracy of distance determinations of the order of 25per cent. Althoughwe find an unusually low scatter in the TFR (probably a statisticalaccident), a typical scatter in the TFR would yield distances to oursample galaxies with uncertainties of only ~15per cent. However, one ofthe main advantages of the use of the NIR CM relation is that we needonly photometric data to obtain distance estimates; use of the TFRrequires additional kinematic data, although it can be used tosignificantly greater distances.
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