Near-Infrared Photometry of Four Stellar Clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

We present high-quality J, H and K photometry of four Small Magellanic Cloud stellar clusters with intermediate ages in the 1-7 Gyr range (namely NGC 339, 361, 416 and 419) . We obtained deep Color-Magnitude Diagrams to study the evolved sequences and providing a detailed census of the Red Giant Branch (RGB), Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) and Carbon star populations in each cluster and their contribution to the total cluster light. We find that in the 5-7 Gyr old clusters AGB stars account for ~6 % of the total light in K-band, Carbon stars are lacking and RGB stars account for ~45 % of the total bolometric luminosity. These empirical findings are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions. Finally, we derived photometric metallicities computed by using the properties of the RGB and finding an iron content of [Fe/H]=-1.18, -1.08, -0.99 and -0.96 dex for NGC 339, 361, 416 and 419 respectively.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (17)

• Evolutionary population synthesis: models, analysis of the ingredients and application to high-z galaxies
• Abundances for Globular Cluster Giants: I. Homogeneous Metallicities for 24 Clusters
• The giant, horizontal and asymptotic branches of galactic globular clusters. I. The catalog, photometric observables and features
• Cluster Mass Functions in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds: Fading and Size of Sample Effects
• Evolutionary synthesis of stellar populations: a modular tool
• Ca II Triplet Spectroscopy of Giants in SMC Star Clusters: Abundances, Velocities and the Age-Metallicity Relation
• WFPC2 Observations of Star Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds. II. The Oldest Star Clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Red Giant Branch in the Near-Infrared Colour-Magnitude Diagrams. I: The calibration of photometric indices
• Towards the absolute planes: a new calibration of the Bolometric Corrections and Temperature scales for Population II Giants
• AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds. I. The C/M ratio
• Old Stellar Populations of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Star Clusters of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Age Distribution
• Two Groups of Nearly Coeval Star Clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Age distribution of young clusters and field stars in the SMC
• Red Giant stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud clusters
• Probing the RGB-phase transition: Near-IR photometry of six intermediate age LMC clusters
• Another Faint UV Object Associated with a Globular Cluster X-Ray Source: The Case of M92

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Multiple populations in the old and massive Small Magellanic Cloud globular cluster NGC121
• The chemical DNA of the Magellanic Clouds -- I. The chemical composition of 206 Small Magellanic Cloud red giant stars
• Metallicities and ages for 35 star clusters and their surrounding fields in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Effects of Alpha-Element Enhancement and the Thermally Pulsing-Asymptotic Giant Branch on Surface Brightness Fluctuation Magnitudes and Broadband Colors
• Hints for multiple populations in intermediate-age clusters of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Ks Band Luminosity Evolution of the Asymptotic Giant Branch Population Based on Star Clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud