Distance scale calibration based on early-type binaries

Abstract

Our main goal is to establish a firm empirical calibration of the surface brightness vs. (V-K) color relation for early type stars based on high quality spectroscopic and infrared observations of early-type detached eclipsing systems in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Our calibration of this relation will allow distance determinations accurate to about 2.5% to a single object located well beyond the Magellanic Clouds. This will let us calibrate other distance indicators, including period-luminosity relations for Cepheids. The first step of the project is to determine precise parameters for a sample of B-type systems in the LMC. We have already made a preliminary analysis of light and radial velocity curves for selected objects and measured their masses and radii. Here we present the results for one such system.