| Issue |
A&A
Volume 518, July-August 2010
Herschel: the first science highlights
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | A15 | |
| Number of page(s) | 11 | |
| Section | Galactic structure, stellar clusters, and populations | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200913070 | |
| Published online | 24 August 2010 | |
Near-infrared properties of metal-poor globular clusters in the Galactic bulge direction*
1
Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University, 120-749 Seoul, Korea e-mail: sohnyj@yonsei.ac.kr; shchun@galaxy.yonsei.ac.kr
2
Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
3
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, 305-348 Daejeon, Korea
Received:
5
August
2009
Accepted:
16
April
2010
Aims. J, H, and 
images obtained from the near-infrared imager CFHTIR on the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope are used to derive the morphological parameters of the red giant branch (RGB) in the near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams
for 12 metal-poor globular clusters in the Galactic bulge direction.
Using the compiled data set of the RGB parameters for the observed 12 clusters,
in addition to the previously studied 5 clusters,
we discuss the properties of the RGB morphology for the clusters and compare them with the calibration relations for the metal-rich bulge clusters and the metal-poor halo clusters.
Methods. The photometric RGB shape indices, such as colors at fixed magnitudes of
MK = MH = (-5.5, -5, -4, and -3), magnitudes at fixed colors of (J-K
= (J-H = 0.7,
and the RGB slope, were measured from the fiducial normal points
defined in the near-infrared color–magnitude diagrams for each cluster.
The magnitudes of RGB bump and tip were also estimated from
the differential and cumulative luminosity functions of the selected RGB stars.
The derived RGB parameters were used to examine the overall behaviors of the RGB morphology as a function of cluster metallicity.
Results. The correlations between the near-infrared photometric RGB shape indices and the cluster metallicity for the program clusters compare favorably with the previous observational calibration relations for metal-rich clusters in the Galactic bulge and the metal-poor halo clusters. The observed near-infrared magnitudes of the RGB bump and tip for the investigated clusters also accord with the previous calibration relations for the Galactic bulge clusters.
Key words: Galaxy: structure / globular clusters: general / stars: evolution / infrared: stars / techniques: photometric
Based on observations carried out at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, operated by the National Research Council of Canada, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de France, and the University of Hawaii. This is a part of the survey for the Galactic bulge clusters using the CFHT, organized by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.
© ESO, 2010
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