Period-Luminosity relations derived from the OGLE-III first-overtone mode Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds

Abstract

We present multiband Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for first-overtone mode Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We derive optical band PL relations and the Wesenheit function using VI mean magnitudes from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE-III) survey. We cross-match OGLE-III first-overtone mode Cepheids to the 2MASS and SAGE-SMC catalogues to derive PL relations at near-infrared (JHK_s) and mid-infrared (3.6 and 4.5 μm) wavelengths. We test for possible non-linearities in these PL relations using robust statistical tests and find a significant break only in the optical band PL relations at 2.5 d for first-overtone mode Cepheids. We do not find statistical evidence for a non-linearity in these PL relations at 1 d. The multiband PL relations for fundamental-mode Cepheids in the SMC also exhibit a break at 2.5 d. We suggest that the period break around 2.5 d is related to sharp changes in the light-curve parameters for SMC Cepheids. We also derive new optical and mid-infrared band PL relations for first-overtone mode Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We compare multiband PL relations for first-overtone mode Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds and find a significant difference in the slope of the V-band PL relations but not for I-band PL relations. The slope of PL relations are found to be consistent in most of the infrared bands. A relative distance modulus of Δμ = 0.49 ± 0.02 mag between the two clouds is estimated using multiband PL relations for the first-overtone mode Cepheids in the SMC and LMC.