A Cepheid-based Distance to the Type 1 Seyfert NGC 3783
Abstract
We present a Cepheid-based distance to the Type 1 Seyfert NGC 3783 using the Hubble Space Telescope. Images were obtained over 15 visits using nonredundant time spacing, with ten observations in the F350LP filter and eight observations each in the F555W and F814W filters. We found 1541 unique point sources across all observations, and we fit Cepheid templates to analyze these light curves. From these data, we determined a full sample of seven Cepheid candidates. Of these seven candidates, four are the most convincing and comprise our "strong" sample of Cepheid candidates. We fit the period−luminosity relationship to the total sample and to our "strong" sample using the LMC calibration by Riess et al. (2019). Adopting an independent distance constraint to the LMC given by Pietrzynski et al. (2019), and correcting for the potential effects of metallicity, we determine a distance modulus of μ= 33.118 ± 0.154 mag using our strong sample. This value is formally consistent with the value derived using our full sample and corresponds to a distance of D = 42.03 ± 2.98 Mpc. NGC 3783 is therefore among the farthest galaxies with a Cepheid-based distance measurement.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{markham2026cepheidbased,
title = {{A Cepheid-based Distance to the Type 1 Seyfert NGC 3783}},
author = {Madison Markham and Misty C. Bentz and Laura Ferrarese and Christopher A. Onken and Marianne Vestergaard},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.03226},
eprint = {2611.03226},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03226},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A Cepheid-based Distance to the Type 1 Seyfert NGC 3783
AU - Madison Markham
AU - Misty C. Bentz
AU - Laura Ferrarese
AU - Christopher A. Onken
AU - Marianne Vestergaard
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.03226
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.03226
AB - We present a Cepheid-based distance to the Type 1 Seyfert NGC 3783 using the Hubble Space Telescope. Images were obtained over 15 visits using nonredundant time spacing, with ten observations in the F350LP filter and eight observations each in the F555W and F814W filters. We found 1541 unique point sources across all observations, and we fit Cepheid templates to analyze these light curves. From these data, we determined a full sample of seven Cepheid candidates. Of these seven candidates, four are the most convincing and comprise our "strong" sample of Cepheid candidates. We fit the period−luminosity relationship to the total sample and to our "strong" sample using the LMC calibration by Riess et al. (2019). Adopting an independent distance constraint to the LMC given by Pietrzynski et al. (2019), and correcting for the potential effects of metallicity, we determine a distance modulus of μ= 33.118 ± 0.154 mag using our strong sample. This value is formally consistent with the value derived using our full sample and corresponds to a distance of D = 42.03 ± 2.98 Mpc. NGC 3783 is therefore among the farthest galaxies with a Cepheid-based distance measurement.
ER -