Tip of the red giant branch distances. II. Zero-point calibration

The luminosity of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) provides an excellent measure of galaxy distances and is easily determined in the resolved images of nearby galaxies observed with Hubble Space Telescope. There is now a large amount of archival data that are relevant to the TRGB methodology and offer comparisons with other distance estimators. Zero-point issues related to the TRGB distance scale are reviewed in this paper. Consideration is given to the metallicity dependence of the TRGB, the transformations between HST flight systems and Johnson-Cousins photometry, the absolute magnitude scale based on horizontal branch measurements, and the effects of reddening. The zero point of the TRGB is established with a statistical accuracy of 1%, modulo the uncertainty in the magnitude of the horizontal branch, with a typical rms uncertainty of 3% in individual galaxy distances at high Galactic latitude. The zero point is consistent with the Cepheid period-luminosity relation scale but invites reconsideration of the claimed metallicity dependence with that method. The maser distance to NGC 4258 is consistent with TRGB but presently has lower accuracy.