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 techn ique on a Cepheid in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the variable HV 12198 in t he young globular cluster NGC 1866. From this one star, we determine a dist ance modulus of 18.42 +/- 0.10 (random and systematic uncertainty) to the c luster. When the results on further member Cepheids in NGC 1866 become avai lable, we expect to derive the distance to the LMC with a +/-3%-4% accuracy , including systematic errors, from this technique.