K Giants in Baade's Window. II

We estimate line-of-sight distances for individual stars in our sample and confirm that, in Baade's Window, most K giants with V<15.5 are foreground disk stars, but the great majority (more than 80%) with V>16 belong to the bulge. We also compare the metallicities derived from the CN and Mg2 indices to those from iron. Most of the metal-rich stars in our sample appear to be CN-weak, in contrast to the situation in metal-rich globular clusters and elliptical galaxies.

The metal-poor half of our sample ([Fe/H]<0) shows evidence for a mild Mg overenhancement ([Mg/Fe]~+0.2); but this is not seen in the more metal-rich stars ([Fe/H]>=0). The K giants in Baade's Window therefore share some, but not all, of the characteristics of stars in elliptical galaxies as inferred from their integrated light.