Pulsation at the tip of the first giant branch?

Yoshifusa Ita, Toshihiko Tanabé, Noriyuki Matsunaga, Yasushi Nakajima, Chie Nagashima, Takahiro Nagayama, Daisuke Kato, Mikio Kurita, Tetsuya Nagata, Shuji Sato, Motohide Tamura, Hidehiko Nakaya, Yoshikazu Nakada

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The first results of our ongoing near-infrared (NIR) survey of the variable red giants in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using the Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF) and the SIRIUS infrared camera, are presented. Many very red stars were detected and we found that most of them are variables. In the observed colour-magnitude diagram (J - K, K) and the stellar K magnitude distribution, the tip of the first giant branch (TRGB), where helium burning in the core starts, is clearly seen. Apart from the genuine AGB variables, we found many variable stars at luminosities around the TRGB. From this result, we infer that a substantial fraction of them are RGB variables.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)L31-L34
JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume337
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2002 Dec 11

Keywords

  • Galaxies: stellar content
  • Infrared: stars
  • Magellanic clouds
  • Stars: AGB and post-AGB
  • Stars: variables: other
  • Surveys

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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