The Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance to the Perfect Spiral Galaxy
  M74 Hosting Three Core-Collapse Supernovae
  M74 (NGC 628) is a famous face-on spiral galaxy, hosting three core-collapse
supernovae (SNe):SN Ic 2002ap, SN II-P 2003gd, and SN II-P 2013ej. However its
distance is not well known. We present a distance estimation for this galaxy
based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) method. We obtain photometry of
the resolved stars in the arm-free region of M74 from F555W and F814W images in
the Hubble Space Telescope archive. The color-magnitude diagram of the resolved
stars shows a dominant red giant branch (RGB) as well as blue main sequence
stars, red helium burning stars, and asymptotic giant branch stars. The I-band
luminosity function of the RGB stars shows the TRGB to be at I_TRGB = 26.13 pm
0.03 mag, and T_RGB = 25.97 pm 0.03. From this we derive the distance modulus
to M74 to be 30.04 pm 0.04 (random) pm 0.12 (systematic) (corresponding to a
linear distance, 10.19 pm 0.14 pm 0.56 Mpc). With this distance estimate, we
calibrate the standardized candle method for SNe II-P. From the absolute
magnitudes of SN 2003gd, we derive a value of the Hubble constant, H_0 = 72 pm
6 (random) pm 7 (systematic) km s^-1 Mpc^-1. It is similar to recent estimates
based on the luminosity calibration of Type Ia supernovae.
