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Description
We present measurements of 68 classical Cepheids, most detected from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope POMME Survey, with periods from 10 to 78 days observed in the near-infrared by the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury Program using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The combination of HST's resolution and the use of near-infrared measurements provide a dramatic reduction in the dispersion of the period-luminosity relation over the present optical, ground-based data. Even using random phase magnitudes we measure a dispersion of just 0.17mag, implying a dispersion of just 0.12mag for mean magnitudes. The error in the mean for this relation is 1% in distance. Combined with similar observations of Cepheids in other hosts and independent distance determinations, we measure a distance to M31 of {mu}_0_=24.38+/-0.06(statistical)+/-0.03(systematic), 752+/-27kpc, in good agreement with past measurements though with a better, 3% precision here. The result is also in good agreement with independent distance determinations from two detached eclipsing binaries allowing for an independent calibration of the Cepheid luminosities and a determination of the Hubble constant.
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