Calibration of Synthetic Photometry Using DA White Dwarfs

Abstract

We have calibrated four major ground-based photometric systems with respect to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) absolute flux scale, which is defined by Vega and four fundamental DA white dwarfs. These photometric systems include the Johnson-Kron-Cousins UBVRI, the Strömgren uvby filters, the Two Micron All Sky Survey JHKs, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey ugriz filters. Synthetic magnitudes are calculated from model white dwarf spectra folded through the published filter response functions; these magnitudes in turn are absolutely calibrated with respect to the HST flux scale. Effective zero-magnitude fluxes and zero-point offsets of each system are determined. In order to verify the external observational consistency, as well as to demonstrate the applicability of these definitions, the synthetic magnitudes are compared with the respective observed magnitudes of larger sets of DA white dwarfs that have well-determined effective temperatures and surface gravities and span a wide range in both of these parameters.