Red variables in the OGLE-II database. II. Comparison of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

Abstract

We present period-luminosity relations for more than 3,200 red variable stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud observed in the second phase of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE-II). Periods of multiply-periodic light curve solutions combined with the single-epoch 2MASS JHK_S magnitudes, reveal very similar distributions to those for the Large Magellanic Cloud in Paper I. The main features include four pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) ridges, three distinct short-period sequences below the tip of the Red Giant Branch and two long-period sequences of ambiguous origin. We derive a relative distance modulus of the Clouds from the period-luminosity distributions for all stars of Delta mu_0=0.44 mag, which is in good agreement with recent independent results. The tip of the Red Giant Branch shows a colour and metallicity dependence that is in excellent agreement with the empirical results for globular clusters. We conclude that most variable stars below the TRGB are indeed RGB stars.

6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS (Pink Pages)

References in corpus (13)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• A method for optimal image subtraction
• Stellar Populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud from 2MASS
• A new IR-Array photometric survey of Galactic Globular Clusters: A detailed study of the RGB sequence as a step towards the global testing of stellar models
• Red variables in the OGLE-II database. I. Pulsations and period-luminosity relations below the tip of the Red Giant Branch of the LMC
• Variability and spectral classification of LMC giants: results from DENIS and EROS
• Long Period Variables detected by ISO in the SMC
• Pulsation at the tip of the first giant branch?
• Red Giant Branch Stars as Probes of Stellar Populations I: 2MASS Calibration and Application to 2MASS GC01
• Study of variable stars in the MOA data base: long-period red variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• AGAPEROS: Searching for variable stars in the LMC Bar II. Temporal and near-IR analysis of Long-Period Variables
• Period-magnitude relations for M giants in Baade's Window NGC6522
• Re-analysis of VLT Data for M83 with Image Subtraction -- Nine-fold Increase in Number of Cepheids

Cited by in corpus (29)

• Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? I. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• Variability in red supergiant stars: pulsations, long secondary periods and convection noise
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? III. The Small Magellanic Cloud
• Mira Variables in the OGLE Bulge fields
• Variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds: II. The data and infrared properties
• Long Period Variables in the Magellanic Clouds: OGLE + 2MASS + DENIS
• Near-Infrared Photometry of Globular Clusters Towards the Galactic Bulge: Observations and Photometric Metallicity Indicators
• The Properties of Long-Period Variables in the Large Magellanic Cloud from MACHO
• Long Period Variables in the LMC: Results from MACHO and 2MASS
• Variable stars in the Fornax dSph Galaxy. II. Pulsating stars below the horizontal branch
• Redshift-Independent Distances in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database: Methodology, Content and Use of NED-D
• Ellipsoidal Variability and Long Secondary Periods in MACHO Red Giant Stars
• Non-adiabatic Oscillations of Red Giants
• Period-luminosity relations of pulsating M giants in the solar neighbourhood and the Magellanic Clouds
• Variability of M giant stars based on Kepler photometry: general characteristics
• Red variables in the OGLE-II data base -- III. Constraints on the three-dimensional structures of the LMC and SMC
• Mira variables in the Galactic bulge with OGLE-II data
• Long-term photometry and periods for 261 nearby pulsating M giants
• Acoustic oscillations in stars near the tip of the red giant branch
• Semi-Regular Variables in the Solar Neighbourhood
• Hipparcos calibration of the tip of the Red Giant Branch
• Late-type giant variables in NGC6522, LMC and SMC: How do they differ?
• Pulsation properties of C stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Beyond Gaia: Asteroseismic Distances of M giants using Ground-Based Transient Surveys
• Kepler and the Long Period Variables
• Oxygen- and carbon-rich variable red giant populations in the Magellanic Clouds from EROS, OGLE, MACHO, and 2MASS photometry
• Calibrating and standardizing the Tip of the Red Giant Branch in the Small Magellanic Cloud using small-amplitude red giants
• Stellar hydrodynamics caught in the act: Asteroseismology with CoRoT and Kepler