The Near-Infrared Tip of the Red Giant Branch. II. An Absolute Calibration in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract: We present a new empirical (JHK) absolute calibration of the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We use published data from the extensive \emph{Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey} containing 3.5 million stars, of which 65,000 are red giants that fall within one magnitude of the TRGB. Adopting the TRGB slopes from a companion study of the isolated dwarf galaxy IC\,1613 as well as an LMC distance modulus of (\mu_0 = )~18.49~mag from (geometric) detached eclipsing binaries, we derive absolute (JHK) zero-points for the near-infrared TRGB. For comparison with measurements in the bar alone, we apply the calibrated (JHK) TRGB to a 500 deg\textsuperscript{2} area of the 2MASS survey. The TRGB reveals the 3-dimensional structure of the LMC with a tilt in the direction perpendicular to the major axis of the bar, in agreement with previous studies.