First identification and absolute magnitudes of the red clump stars in the Solar neighbourhood for WISE

Abstract

We present the first determination of absolute magnitudes for the red clump (RC) stars with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We used recently reduced parallaxes taken from the Hipparcos catalogue and identified 3889 RC stars with the WISE photometry in the Solar neighbourhood. Mode values estimated from the distributions of absolute magnitudes and a colour of the RC stars in WISE photometry are M-w1 = -1.635 +/- 0.026, M-w3 = -1.606 +/- 0.024 and (W-1-W-3)(0) = -0.028 +/- 0.001 mag. These values are consistent with those obtained from the transformation formulae using 2MASS data. Distances of the RC stars estimated by using their M-w1, and M-w3 absolute magnitudes are in agreement with the ones calculated by the spectrophotometric method, as well. These WISE absolute magnitudes can be used in astrophysical researches where distance plays an important role. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.