Cepheid period-luminosity-metallicity relation

The derived PL(Z) relations depend strongly on the parallax zero-point offset. The slope of the PL relation is found to be different from the relations in the LMC at the 3{sigma} level. Fixing the slope to the value found in the LMC leads to a distance modulus (DM) to the LMC of order 18.7mag, larger than the canonical distance.

The canonical DM of around 18.5 mag would require a parallax zero-point offset of order -0.1mas. Given the strong correlation between zero point, period and metallicity dependence of the PL relation, and the parallax zero-point offset there is no evidence for a metallicity term in the PLZ relation. The GDR2 release does not allow us to improve on the current distance scale based on CCs.

The value of and the uncertainty on the parallax zero-point offset leads to uncertainties of order 0.15mag on the distance scale. The parallax zero-point offset will need to be known at a level of 3{mu}as or better to have a 0.01mag or smaller effect on the zero point of the PL relation and the DM to the LMC.