Fundamental Properties and Distances of the Large Magellanic Cloud from Eclipsing Binaries. II. HV 982

We have determined the distance to a second eclipsing binary (EB) system in the Large Magellanic Cloud, HV 982 (DB1 IVV ) DB1 IVV). The measurement of the distanceamong other properties of the systemis based on optical photometry and spectroscopy and space-based UV/optical spectropho- tometry. The analysis combines the ii classical ˇˇ EB study of light and radial velocity curves, which yields the stellar masses and radii, with a new analysis of the observed energy distribution, which yields the eUective temperature, metallicity, and reddening of the system plus the distance ii attenuation factor,ˇˇ essentially (radius/distance)2. Combining the results gives the distance to HV 982, which is 50.2 ^ 1.2 kpc. This distance determination consists of a detailed study of well-understood objects (B stars) in a well-understood evolutionary phase (core H burning). The results are entirely consistent withbut do not depend onstellar evolution calculations. There are no ii zero-point ˇˇ uncertainties as, for example, with the use of Cepheid variables. Neither is the result subject to sampling biases, as may aUect tech- niques that utilize whole stellar populations, such as red giant branch stars. Moreover, the analysis is insensitive to stellar metallicity (although the metallicity of the stars is explicitly determined), and the eUects of interstellar extinction are determined for each object studied. After correcting for the location of HV 982, we —nd an implied distance to the optical center of the LMCs bar of kpc. d LMC \ 50.7 ^ 1.2 This result diUers by nearly 5 kpc from our earlier result for the EB HV 2274, which implies a bar distance of 45.9 kpc. These results may either re—ect marginally compatible measures of a unique LMC distance or, alternatively, suggest a signi—cant depth to the stellar distribution in the LMC. Some evi- dence for this latter hypothesis is discussed. Subject headings: binaries: eclipsingdistance scaleMagellanic Cloudsstars: distances ¨ stars: fundamental parametersstars: individual (HV 982)