Small Magellanic Cloud Cepheids Observed with the Hubble Space Telescope Provide a New Anchor for the SH0ES Distance Ladder

Abstract: We present phase-corrected photometric measurements of 88 Cepheid variables in the core of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), the first sample obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope's (HST) Wide Field Camera 3, in the same homogeneous photometric system as past measurements of all Cepheids on the SH0ES distance ladder. We limit the sample to the inner core and model the geometry to reduce errors in prior studies due to the nontrivial depth of this cloud. Without crowding present in ground-based studies, we obtain an unprecedentedly low dispersion of 0.102 mag for a period-luminosity (P-L) relation in the SMC, approaching the width of the Cepheid instability strip. The new geometric distance to 15 late-type detached eclipsing binaries in the SMC offers a rare opportunity to improve the foundation of the distance ladder, increasing the number of calibrating galaxies from three to four. With the SMC as the only anchor, we find H$_0!=!74.1 \pm 2.1$ km/s/Mpc. Combining these four geometric distances with our HST photometry of SMC Cepheids, we obtain H$_0!=!73.17 \pm 0.86$ km/s/Mpc. By including the SMC in the distance ladder, we also double the range where the metallicity ([Fe/H]) dependence of the Cepheid P-L relation can be calibrated, and we find $\gamma = -0.234 \pm 0.052$ mag/dex. Our local measurement of H$_0$ based on Cepheids and Type Ia supernovae shows a 5.8$\sigma$ tension with the value inferred from the cosmic microwave background assuming a Lambda cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmology, reinforcing the possibility of physics beyond $\Lambda$CDM.