The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation (The Leavitt Law) at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths. IV. Cepheids in IC 1613
Abstract
We present mid-infrared period-luminosity relations for Cepheids in the Local Group galaxy IC 1613. Using archival Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) imaging data from Spitzer we were able to measure single-epoch magnitudes for five, 7-50 days, Cepheids at 3.6 and 4.5 μm. When fit to the calibrating relations, measured for the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids, the data give apparent distance moduli of 24.29 ± 0.07 and 24.28 ± 0.07 at 3.6 and 4.5 μm, respectively. A multiwavelength fit to previously published BVRIJHK apparent moduli and the two IRAC moduli gives a true distance modulus of 24.27 ± 0.02 mag with E(B - V) = 0.08 mag, and a corresponding metric distance of 715 kpc. Given that these results are based on single-phase observations derived from exposures having total integration times of only 1000 s pixel-1, we suggest that Cepheids out to about 2 Mpc are accessible to Spitzer with modest integration times during its warm mission. We identify the main limiting factor to this method to be crowding/contamination induced by the ubiquitous population of infrared-bright asymptotic giant branch stars.
- Publication:
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The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- April 2009
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0901.2907
- Bibcode:
- 2009ApJ...695..996F
- Keywords:
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- Cepheids;
- galaxies: distances and redshifts;
- galaxies: individual: IC 1613;
- infrared: stars;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted to ApJ December 2008: 9 pages, 3 figures