Related papers: Current Challenges in Cepheid Distance Calibration…
The extragalactic distance scale builds directly on the Cepheid Period-Luminosity (PL) relation as delineated by the sample of Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). However, the LMC is a dwarf irregular galaxy, quite different from…
We have used the infrared surface brightness technique to obtain a new absolute calibration of the Cepheid PL relation in optical and near-infrared bands from improved data on Galactic stars. The infrared surface brightness distances to the…
Uncertainty in the metal abundance dependence of the Cepheid variable period- luminosity (PL) relation remains one of the outstanding sources of systematic error in the extragalactic distance scale and Hubble constant. To test for such a…
We use theoretical Period-Luminosity and Period-Luminosity-Color relations in the VI passbands, as based on nonlinear, nonlocal and time-dependent convective pulsating models, to predict the reddening and true distance modulus of distant…
Thanks to HST, there are now many galaxies with Cepheid distances and these provide the main platform for the calibration of the secondary distance indicators. I review recent progress in our understanding of the standard candle properties…
Context. Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), published in December 2020, features improved photometry and astrometry over that published in the previous DR2 file, and includes a substantially larger number of sources, of the order of 2,000…
Context. The Gaia satellite will measure highly accurate absolute parallaxes of hundreds of millions of stars by comparing the parallactic displacements in the two fields of view of the optical instrument. The requirements on the stability…
Cepheid stars play a considerable role as extragalactic distances indicators, thanks to the simple empirical relation between their pulsation period and their luminosity. They overlap with that of secondary distance indicators, such as Type…
We present Period-Luminosity Relations (PLRs) for 55 Cepheids in M31 with periods ranging from 4 to 78 days observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using the same three-band photometric system recently used to calibrate their…
The Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation is unquestionably one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for determining the extragalactic distance scale. While significant progress has been made in the past few years towards its…
We have studied the zero-point offset of Gaia early Data Release 3 (EDR3) parallaxes based on a sample of 0.3 million giant stars built from the LAMOST data with distance accuracy better than 8.5\%. The official parallax zero-point…
We analyse a sample of 236 Cepheids from the Hipparcos catalog, using the method of ``reduced parallaxes'' in V, I, K and the reddening-free ``Wesenheit-index''. We compare our sample to those considered by Feast & Catchpole (1997) and…
We report on the detection of Cepheids and the first distance measurement to the spiral galaxy NGC 1326-A, a member of the Fornax cluster of galaxies. We have employed data obtained with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the…
A sample of 37 Galactic, 10 LMC and 6 SMC cepheids is compiled for which individual metallicity estimates exist and BVIK photometry in almost all cases. The Galactic cepheids all have an individual distance estimate available. For the MC…
Gaia EDR3 has provided unprecedented data that generate a lot of interest in the astrophysical community, despite the fact that systematics affect the reported parallaxes at the level of ~ 10 muas. Independent distance measurements are…
In the Gaia era, the membership analysis and parameter determination of open clusters (OCs) are more accurate. We performed a census of OC's classical Cepheids based on Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) and obtained a sample of 33 OC…
We have derived accurate distances to Galactic globular clusters by combining data from the Gaia Early Data Release 3 with distances based on Hubble Space telescope HST data and literature based distances. We determine distances either…
We determine Period-Luminosity relations for Milky Way Cepheids in the optical and near-IR bands. These relations can be used directly as reference for extra-galactic distance determination to Cepheid populations with solar metallicity, and…
We present a progress report of our project aiming to increase the number of known Cepheids in double-lined binary (SB2) systems from six to 100 or more. This will allow us, among other goals, to accurately measure masses for a large sample…
We present the detection of Cepheids in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1313, using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescpoe. Twenty B (F450W) and V (F555W) epochs of observations spanning over three weeks were…