Related papers: Cepheids as Distance Indicators: Some Current Prob…
Determining the expansion of the universe, i.e. the Hubble constant (H0) to better than 2% is required in order to understand the nature of dark energy. However, the two most accurate methods to do it, the cosmic microwave background and…
Cepheids have been the cornerstone of the extragalactic distance scale for a century. With high-quality data, these luminous supergiants exhibit a small dispersion in their Leavitt (period-luminosity) relation, particularly at longer…
The RR Lyrae distance scale is reviewed. In particular, we discuss theoretical and empirical methods currently adopted in the literature. Moreover, we also outline pros and cons of optical and near-infrared mean magnitudes to overcome some…
Previous nonlinear fundamental pulsation models for classical Cepheids with metal content Z <= 0.02 are implemented with new computations at super-solar metallicity (Z=0.03, 0.04) and selected choices of the helium-to-metal enrichment ratio…
We present results based on a Baade-Wesselink analysis of Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Baade-Wesselink analysis provides individual luminosities for these metal-poor Cepheids which combined with recent Baade-Wesselink results…
We derive the basic properties of seven Galactic open clusters containing Cepheids and construct their period-luminosity (P-L) relations. For our cluster main-sequence fitting we extend previous Hyades-based empirical color-temperature…
Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is determined using the Cepheid variables in the LMC. We combine the individual LMC Cepheid distances obtained from the infrared surface brightness method and a dataset with a large number of LMC…
We re-analyze the Cepheid data used to infer the value of $H_0$ by calibrating SnIa. We do not enforce a universal value of the empirical Cepheid calibration parameters $R_W$ (Cepheid Wesenheit color-luminosity parameter) and $M_H^{W}$…
Classical Cepheid stars have been considered since more than a century as reliable tools to estimate distances in the universe thanks to their Period-Luminosity (P-L) relationship. Moreover, they are also powerful astrophysical…
Cepheids are fundamental objects astrophysically in that they hold the key to a CMB independent estimate of Hubble's constant. A number of researchers have pointed out the possibilities of breaking degeneracies between Omega_Matter and H0…
Recent developments in the determination of H0 are reviewed in the context of the 3 following questions: 1) What is required to measure an accurate value of H0? Given the wide range of H0 values quoted in the current literature, is there…
321 Galactic fundamental-mode Cepheids with good B,V,I photometry by Berdnikov et al. 2000 and with homogenized color excesses E(B-V) based on Fernie et al. 1995 are used to determine their P-C relation in the range 0.4<log P<1.6. Distances…
Cepheids have long been used as standard candles to determine distances around the Milky Way and to nearby galaxies. A discrepancy still remains for Hubble Constant determinations using Cepheids vs. the cosmic microwave background or…
We demonstrate how the Fundamental Manifold (FM) can be used to cross-calibrate distance estimators even when those "standard candles" are not found in the same galaxy. Such an approach greatly increases the number of distance measurements…
We present a measurement of the Hubble Constant based on Cepheid distances to 27 galaxies within 20 Mpc. We take the Cepheid data from published measurements by the Hubble Telescope Key Project on the Distance Scale (H0KP). We calibrate the…
Classical Cepheids (DCEPs) are the most important primary indicators of the extragalactic distance scale. Establishing the dependence on metallicity of their period--luminosity and period--Wesenheit ($PLZ$/$PWZ$) relations has deep…
The Magellanic Clouds, especially the Large Magellanic Cloud, are places where multiple distance indicators can be compared with each other in a straight-forward manner at considerable precision. We here review the distances derived from…
Recent work by Efstathiou (2014) highlighted the importance of outliers in the period-luminosity (PL) relation of Cepheid data on the distance ladder. We present a statistical framework designed to address this difficulty, and apply it to…
An analysis of the observed characteristics of the Galactic Cepheid variables is carried out in the framework of their period-luminosity relation being used as a standard candle for distance measurement. The variation of the observed number…
A Cepheid-based calibration is derived for four distance indicators that utilize stars in the old stellar populations: the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB), the planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF), the globular cluster luminosity…