Calibrating Stellar Population Models in the Near-IR: Implications Due to the Presence of Carbon–Rich AGB Stars

Abstract

We present our near-IR integrated spectral library of six globular clusters in the LMC and compare the data with existing stellar populations models. We find good agreement between models and data in the case of old, metal-poor clusters, while for intermediate-age and more metal-rich clusters we observe a deviation from the models. We find that this disagreement is due to the different CO absorption strengths of the carbon-rich Milky Way TP-AGB stars used in the models and the LMC carbon stars in our sample.