AAS 197, January 2001
Session 119. The Cosmic Distance Scale
Oral, Thursday, January 11, 2001, 10:30am-12:00noon, San Diego

## [119.03] Sunyev-Zel'dovich Determined Direct Distances to High Redshift Galaxy Clusters: Implications for the Hubble Constant

Erik Reese (University of Chicago)

I will present distances to a sample of over 15 high redshift (0.14 \leq z \leq 0.78) galaxy clusters from a joint analaysis of 30 GHz interferometric Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) data and archival ROSAT X-ray data. These distances are used to place constraints on the Hubble parameter for three different cosmologies. Though dominated by systemaics, they can be addressed with current X-ray satelites (Chandra & XMM-Newton) and radio observatories (OVRO, BIMA, & VLA). We briefly discuss these systematics and their approachable nature.

This work supported by NASA LTSA grant NAG5-7986. EDR gratefully acknowledges support from NASA GSRP Fellowship NGT5-50173. This work done in collaboration with the OVRO/BIMA SZE imaging team; special thanks to John Carlstrom, Marshall Joy, Joseph Mohr, Laura Grego, and William Holzapfel who made this project possible.