A 5 per cent measurement of the Hubble–Lemaître constant from Type II supernovae

Abstract

ABSTRACT The most stringent local measurement of the Hubble–Lemaître constant from Cepheid-calibrated Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) differs from the value inferred via the cosmic microwave background radiation (Planck+ΛCDM) by ∼5σ. This so-called Hubble tension has been confirmed by other independent methods, and thus does not appear to be a possible consequence of systematic errors. Here, we continue upon our prior work of using Type II supernovae to provide another, largely independent method to measure the Hubble–Lemaître constant. From 13 SNe II with geometric, Cepheid, or tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) host-galaxy distance measurements, we derive H$_0= 75.4^{+3.8}_{-3.7}$ km s−1 Mpc−1 (statistical errors only), consistent with the local measurement but in disagreement by ∼2.0σ with the Planck+ΛCDM value. Using only Cepheids (N = 7), we find H$_0 = 77.6^{+5.2}_{-4.8}$ km s−1 Mpc−1, while using only TRGB (N = 5), we derive H$_0 = 73.1^{+5.7}_{-5.3}$ km s−1 Mpc−1. Via 13 variants of our data set, we derive a systematic uncertainty estimate of 1.5 km s−1 Mpc−1. The median value derived from these variants differs by just 0.3 km s−1 Mpc−1 from that produced by our fiducial model. Because we only replace SNe Ia with SNe II – and we do not find statistically significant difference between the Cepheid and TRGB H0 measurements – our work reveals no indication that SNe Ia or Cepheids could be the sources of the ‘H0 tension.’ We caution, however, that our conclusions rest upon a modest calibrator sample; as this sample grows in the future, our results should be verified.