The Mid-Infrared Tully-Fisher Relation: Calibration of the SNIa Scale
  and Ho
  This paper builds on a calibration of the SNIa absolute distance scale begun
with a core of distances based on the correlation between galaxy rotation rates
and optical Ic band photometry. This new work extends the calibration through
the use of mid-infrared photometry acquired at 3.6 microns with Spitzer Space
Telescope. The great virtue of the satellite observations is constancy of the
photometry at a level better than 1% across the sky. The new calibration is
based on 39 individual galaxies and 8 clusters that have been the sites of well
observed SNIa. The new 3.6 micron calibration is not yet as extensively based
as the Ic band calibration but is already sufficient to justify a preliminary
report. Distances based on the mid-infrared photometry are 2% greater in the
mean than reported at Ic band. This difference is only marginally significant.
The Ic band result is confirmed with only a small adjustment. Incorporating a
1% decrease in the LMC distance, the present study indicates Ho = 75.2 +/- 3.0
km/s/Mpc.
