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 +/- 0.03 mag, and T-RGB = 25.97 +/- 0.03. From this, we derive the distance modulus to M74 to be 30.04 +/- 0.04 (random) +/- 0.12 (systematic) (corresponding to a linear distance of 10.19 +/- 0.14 +/- 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 +/- 6 (random) +/- 7 (systematic) km s(-1) Mpc(-1). It is similar to recent estimates based on the luminosity calibration of Type Ia supernovae.