Near-IR photometry of AGB stars in IC 1613

The broad color distribution of M-giant stars and the isochrones in color magnitude diagram indicate that IC 1613 has a wide range of intermediate-age stars. We also know that most C stars were formed over the past 2-8Gyr according the M_bol-age relation. The C/M ratio of 0.46+/-0.05 was estimated and [Fe/H] abundance of -1.23+/-0.06 was derived from the C/M ratio.

Radial distributions of C/M ratio and metallicity show the shallow trend of the negative metallicity gradient from the center. The local C/M ratio also indicates that the HI cavity has higher C/M values than the bright HI spot and HI gas region. However, the low [Fe/H] value near the central region of the galaxy is likely to be caused by the change in age of the dominant stellar population according to the radial distance, not the real metallicity variation.

It might also be that relatively younger and metal-rich C stars are concentrated in the center of the galaxy, while the M-giant stars were homogeneously distributed from the center to the borders of the galaxy.