The Araucaria Project. On the Tip of the Red Giant Branch distance determination to the Magellanic Clouds

Understand

We present a precise optical and near-infrared determination of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) brightness in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (respectively LMC and SMC).

• The commonly used calibrations of the absolute magnitude of the TRGB lead to an overestimation of the distance to the LMC and SMC in the K band, and an underestimation of the distance in the optical I band for both galaxies.
• Reported discrepancies are at the level of 0.2 mag, with respect to the very accurate distance determinations to both Clouds based on late-type eclipsing binaries.
• The differential distances between the LMC and SMC obtained in the J and K bands, and for the bolometric brightness are consistent with each other, and with the results obtained from eclipsing binaries and other distance indicators.