2009ApJ...702.1336C

Based on photometric data of the central parts of eight globular clusters and one open cluster presented by An and his collaborators, we select red horizontal branch (RHB) stars in the (g - r)₀-g₀ diagram and make a statistical study of the distributions of their colors and absolute magnitudes in the SDSS ugriz system. Meanwhile, absolute magnitudes in the Johnson VRI system are calculated through the translation formulae between gri and VRI in the literature. The calibrations of absolute magnitude as functions of metallicity and age are established by linear regressions of the data. It is found that metallicity coefficients in these calibrations decrease, while age coefficients increase, from the blue u filter to the red z filter. The calibration of M_i= 0.06[Fe/H] + 0.040t + 0.03 has the smallest scatter of 0.04 mag, and thus i is the best filter in the ugriz system when RHB stars are used for distance indicators. The comparison of the M_Icalibration from our data with that from red clump stars indicates that the previous suggestion that the I filter is better than the V filter in distance determination may not be true because of its significant dependence on age.