Abstract
Context. Surface brightness-color relations (SBCRs) are widely used for estimating angular diameters and deriving stellar properties. They are critical to derive extragalactic distances of early-type and late-type eclipsing binaries or, potentially, for extracting planetary parameters of late-type stars hosting planets. Various SBCRs have been implemented so far, but strong discrepancies in terms of precision and accuracy still exist in the literature. Aims. We aim to develop a precise SBCR for early-type B and A stars using selection criteria, based on stellar characteristics, and combined with homogeneous interferometric angular diameter measurements. We also improve SBCRs for late-type stars, in particular in the Gaia photometric band. Methods. We observed 18 early-type stars with the VEGA interferometric instrument, installed on the CHARA array. We then applied additional criteria on the photometric measurements, together with stellar characteristics diagnostics in order to build the SBCRs. Results. We calibrated a SBCR for subgiant and dwarf early-type stars. The RMS of the relation is σFV0 = 0.0051 mag, leading to an average precision of 2.3% on the estimation of angular diameters, with 3.1% for V −K < −0.2 mag and 1.8% for V −K > −0.2 mag. We found that the conversion between Johnson-K and 2MASS-Ks photometries is a key issue for early-type stars. Following this result, we have revisited our previous SBCRs for late-type stars by calibrating them with either converted Johnson-K or 2MASS-Ks photometries. We also improve the calibration of these SBCRs based on the Gaia photometry. The expected precision on the angular diameter using our SBCRs for late-type stars ranges from 1.0 to 2.7%. Conclusions. By reaching a precision of 2.3% on the estimation of angular diameters for early-type stars, significant progress has been made to determine extragalactic distances, such as M31 and M33 galaxies, using early-type eclipsing binaries.
Highlights
Determining the expansion of the Universe, that is the Hubble constant (H0) to better than 2%, is required in order to understand the nature of dark energy
The expected precision on the angular diameter using our surface brightness-color relation (SBCR) for late-type stars ranges from 1.0 to 2.7%
Deriving the distance from eclipsing binaries is simple: the radius of both components is estimated from the combination of photometry and spectroscopy, and angular diameters are estimated from the magnitude and color of stars through a SBCR
Summary
Determining the expansion of the Universe, that is the Hubble constant (H0) to better than 2%, is required in order to understand the nature of dark energy. Cepheids are the backbone of the extragalactic distance ladder because their pulsation periods, which are determined observationally, directly correlate with their luminosities Another method consists in using eclipsing binaries to constrain extragalactic distances. A new estimate of the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), based on 20 late-type eclipsing binaries, has been obtained by the Araucaria team (Pietrzynski et al 2019). Their precision of 1% is mostly due to the precision of the surface brightness-color relation (SBCR), calibrated on 41 nearby red clump giant stars using infrared interferometry (Gallenne et al 2018). The influence of interstellar attenuation in neighboring galaxies has been studied using several techniques so far (Bonanos et al 2006; Pietrzynski et al 2019; Graczyk et al 2020), and it is still under investigation
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