The Cepheid period-luminosity relation in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

A homogeneous set of ground-based BVRI observations of ∼600 Cepheids is presented to check the Cepheid period-luminosity zero point for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The sample of Cepheids is completely self-contained and has been reduced consistently to eliminate photometric differences caused by combining multiple sources of photometry. The Cepheid distances to nearby galaxies obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale were computed assuming a "standard" PL relation based on a compilation of photoelectric observations of 34 Cepheids and a standard distance modulus to the LMC of 18.50. The final Key Project results substituted a statisti..