Precise and accurate distance determination to the LMC and SMC

Grzegorz Pietrzyński

We present distance determinations to the LMC and SMC based on very scarce long period eclipsing binary systems composed of giants. Our LMC distance accurate to 2.2 %, currently sets the best zero point for the whole extragalactic distance scale, while the 1 % relative distance between the LMC and SMC offers unique opportunity to study populational effects on the stellar distance indicators. We also present recent results on eclipsing binary systems containing classical Cepheids. They provide a way to precisely calibrate Baade - Wesselink technique for distance measurement. Apart from distances, analysis of our systems allowed us to measure with a very good accuracy basic stellar parameters (1-3 % radii, masses, effective temperature, etc) of relatively large sample of static giants (26) and also 5 classical Cepheids. This catalog provides unique opportunity to calibrate evolutionary models of giant stars and pulsating stars.

Proceedings of the Polish Astronomical Society, vol. 1, 34-37 (2014)

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