A Near-Infrared Photometric Survey of Metal-Poor Inner Spheroid Globular Clusters and Nearby Bulge Fields

Abstract

Images recorded through J, H, K, 2.2 micron continuum and CO filters have been obtained of a sample of metal-poor ([Fe/H] < -1.3) globular clusters in the inner spheroid of the Galaxy. The shape and color of the upper giant branch on the (K, J-K) CMD, combined with the K brightness of the RGB-tip, are used to estimate the metallicity, reddening, and distance of each cluster. CO indices are used to identify bulge stars, which will bias metallicity and distance estimates if not removed from the data. Bulge fields were also observed near each cluster. The slope of the bulge giant branch luminosity function does not vary between most fields, although the LFs in Baade's Window and near NGC 6273 are significantly shallower than average. The data also suggest that the HB content may not be uniform throughout the bulge, in the sense that a larger than average number of red HB stars may occur in fields closest to the Galactic Center.

40 pages of text; 25 postscript figures; to appear in the Astronomical Journal

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• An Accurate, Easy to Use Abundace Scale for Globular Clusters Based on 2.2um Spectra of Giant Stars
• Constraining stellar population models - I. Age, metallicity, and abundance pattern compilation for Galactic globular clusters
• A Chemical Composition Survey of the Iron-Complex Globular Cluster NGC 6273 (M 19)
• The Brightest AGB Stars in the Inner Bulge of M31
• The Structure and Stellar Content of the Central Region of M33
• The Cosmological Significance of High-Velocity Cloud Complex H
• Deep Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of Globular Clusters Towards the Galactic Bulge: Observations, Data Reduction and Color-Magnitude Diagrams
• The Metallicity of the Red Giant Branch in the Disk of NGC 6822
• The Stellar Content of the Post-Starburst S0 Galaxy NGC 5102
• RR Lyrae stars in the southern globular cluster NGC 362
• The Upper Asymptotic Giant Branch of the Elliptical Galaxy Maffei 1, and Comparisons with M32 and NGC 5128
• The Disk and Extraplanar Regions of NGC 55
• Near-Infrared Imaging of the Central Regions of Metal-Poor Inner Spheroid Globular Clusters