Comparison of Different Methods to Determine the Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

This research paper aims to compare different methods for calculating the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud $\text{LMC}$. The distance, $d_{\text{LMC}}$, is determined using stellar parallax, variable stars (RR Lyrae and Classical Cepheids), redshift, and celestial mechanics, from which the systematic and standard errors are calculated. After analyzing each method, the final distance is obtained as $d_{\text{LMC}} = 50.4802 \pm 0.0638 \ \text{std} \ \text{Kpc}$, differing by $+ 0.5102 \ \text{Kpc}$ from the currently most accepted value of $d_{\text{LMC}} = 49.97 \ \text{Kpc}$ (Pietrzyński, 2014). In this paper, the value of $d_{\text{LMC}}$ was obtained by combining the distances determined from RR Lyrae and Classical Cepheid variable stars, celestial mechanics and parallax.