Near-infrared variant of the Barnes-Evans method for finding Cepheid distances calibrated with high-precision angular diameters

The advantages of a near-infrared variant of the Barnes-Evans method for estimating distances to Cepheid variables are described and quantified. A surface brightness-color relation for K photometry and the (V - K)0 color index is established using modern, high-precision angular diameters from optical interferometers. Applied to data for the galactic (cluster) Cepheid U Sgr, this method yields a distance of 0.660±0.024 kpc and a true distance …