The distance modulus of the Large Magellanic Cloud: Constraints from RR Lyrae pulsation properties

Abstract

It has recently been suggested that the discrepancy between the "long" and "short" distance moduli of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), as inferred from the properties of the Cepheid and RR Lyrae variables, respectively, might be due to the action of "third parameters" between the Galaxy and the LMC, which would make the RR Lyraes in the old LMC globular clusters brighter than their Galactic counterparts by $\simeq 0.3 {mag}$. Through analysis of the RR Lyrae pulsation properties, we show that this idea is not supported by the available data. A satisfactory explanation of the problem has yet to be found.

LaTeX file, five pages, requires l-aa.sty (v.3.0). One postscript figure available upon request. To appear in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Letters section)