Determination of the LMC distance modulus from the Classical Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation

The distance modulus of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the first step on the determination of the cosmic distance scale. In this paper it is obtained from a new calibration of the classical Cepheid Period-Luminosity (PL) relation. Our new calibration is obtained by applying the LM method – a parametric method designed to obtain luminosity calibrations from astrometric information – to the Hipparcos data for Classical Cepheids. The resulting distance modulus is ${18.35}^m\pm 0.13$.