Connecting Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances to Type Ia Supernova Hosts: Testing the Top Rung of the Distance Ladder

Abstract

We compare infrared surface brightness fluctuation (IR SBF) distances measured in galaxies that have hosted type Ia supernovae (SNIa) to distances estimated from SNIa light curve fits. We show that the properties of SNIa found in IR SBF hosts are very different from those exploding in Cepheid calibrators, therefore, this is a direct test of systematic uncertainties on estimation of the Hubble constant (Ho) using supernovae. The IR SBF results from Jensen et al. (2021; arXiv:2105.08299) provide a large and uniformly measured sample of IR SBF distances which we directly compare with distances to 25 SNIa host galaxies. We divide the Hubble flow SNIa into sub-samples that best match the divergent supernova properties seen in the IR SBF hosts and Cepheid hosts. We further divide the SNIa into a sample with light curve widths and host masses that are congruent to those found in the SBF-calibrated hosts. We refit the light curve stretch and color correlations with luminosity, and use these revised parameters to calibrate the Hubble flow supernovae with IR SBF calibrators. Relative to the Hubble flow, the average calibrator distance moduli vary by 0.03mag depending on the SNIa subsamples examined and this adds a 1.8% systematic uncertainty to our Hubble constant estimate. Based on the IR SBF calibrators, Ho=74.6$\pm$0.9(stat)$\pm$ 2.7(syst) km/s/Mpc, which is consistent with the Hubble constant derived from supernovae calibrated from Cepheid variables. We conclude that IR SBF provides reliable calibration of SNIa with a precision comparable to Cepheid calibrators, and with a significant saving in telescope time.