Carbon Stars and C/M Ratio in the WLM Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

Abstract

We identify the rich Carbon star population of the Magellanic-type dwarf irregular galaxy WLM (Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte) and study its photometric properties from deep near-IR observations. The galaxy exhibits also a clear presence of Oxygen rich population. We derive a Carbon to M-star ratio of C/M=0.56(+/-0.12), relatively high in comparison with many galaxies. The spatial distribution of the AGB stars in WLM hints at the presence of two stellar complexes with a size of a few hundred parsecs. Using the HI map of WLM and the derived gas-to-dust ratio for this galaxy we re-determined the distance modulus of WLM from the IR photometry of four known Cepheids, obtaining (m-M)o=24.84(+/-0.14) mag. In addition, we determine the scale length of 0.75(+/-)0.14 kpc of WLM disk in J-band.

8 pages, 9 eps figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (1)

• The line-of-sight towards GRB 030429 at z = 2.66: Probing the matter at stellar, galactic and intergalactic scales

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Local Group Galaxy WLM from Near-Infrared Photometry of Cepheid Variables
• Astrophysical Distance Scale II. Application of the JAGB Method: A Nearby Galaxy Sample
• The Astrophysical Distance Scale III: Distance to the Local Group Galaxy WLM using Multi-Wavelength Observations of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch, Cepheids, and JAGB Stars
• A Spitzer IRAC Census of the Asymptotic Giant Branch Populations in Local Group Dwarfs. II. IC 1613
• The assessment of the near infrared identification of Carbon stars. I. The Local Group galaxies WLM, IC 10 and NGC 6822