The Expanding Photosphere Method: Progress and Problems

Distances to well-observed Type II-P SNe are determined from an updated version of the Expanding Photosphere Method (EPM), based on recent theoretical models. The new EPM distances show good agreement with other independent distances to the host galaxies without any significant systematic bias, contrary to earlier results in the literature. The accuracy of the method is comparable with that of the distance measurements for Type Ia SNe.
Comment: 5 pages; to appear in the AIP conference proceedings of "Supernova 1987A: 20 Years After - Supernovae and Gamma-Ray Bursters", February 19-23, 2007, Aspen, Colorado