The Near-infrared Tip of the Red Giant Branch. II. An Absolute Calibration in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Taylor J. Hoyt, Wendy L. Freedman, Barry F. Madore, Mark Seibert, Rachael L. Beaton, Dylan Hatt, In Sung Jang, Myung Gyoon Lee, Andrew J. Monson, Jeffrey A. Rich

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29 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a new empirical JHK absolute calibration of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We use published data from the extensive Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey containing 3.5 million stars, 65,000 of which are red giants that fall within one magnitude of the TRGB. Adopting the TRGB slopes from a companion study of the isolated dwarf galaxy IC 1613, as well as an LMC distance modulus of μ0 = 18.49 mag from (geometric) detached eclipsing binaries, we derive absolute JHK zero points for the near-infrared TRGB. For a comparison with measurements in the bar alone, we apply the calibrated JHK TRGB to a 500 deg2 area of the 2MASS survey. The TRGB reveals the 3D structure of the LMC with a tilt in the direction perpendicular to the major axis of the bar, which is in agreement with previous studies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number12
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume858
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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