A Direct Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid HV 12198 from the Infrared Surface Brightness Technique

We report on the first application of the infrared surface brightness technique on a Cepheid in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the variable HV 12198 in the young globular cluster NGC 1866. From this one star, we determine a distance modulus of 18.42+/-0.10 (random and systematic uncertainty) to the cluster. When the results on further member Cepheids in NGC 1866 become available, we expect to derive the distance to the LMC with a +/-3%-4% accuracy, including systematic errors, from this technique.