The VMC survey - XX. Identification of new Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud

We present Ks-band light curves for 299 Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) of which 288 are new discoveries that we have identified using multi-epoch near-infrared photometry obtained by the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC). The new Cepheids have periods in the range from 0.34 to 9.1 d and cover the magnitude interval 12.9 = 〈Ks〉 = 17.6 mag. Our method was developed using variable stars previously identified by the optical microlensing survey OGLE.We focus on searching newCepheids in external regions of the SMC for which complete VMC Ks-band observations are available and no comprehensive identification of different types of variable stars from other surveys exists yet.