Surveys for Field Carbon Stars in the Magellanic Clouds

Abstract

The Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stage is the normal luminous phase of evolution of intermediate-mass stars (slightly less than 1 M ⊙ up to very roughly 3 M ⊙) and therefore the AGB stars play a noteworthy role in our understanding of the chemical evolution of galactic systems. Furthermore it is now generally accepted that the ratio of carbon (C) stars to late-type M giant stars can be used to estimate the mean metallicity of the stellar population of a system, or the change in metallicity from the inner to the outer parts of a galaxy. It is for these reasons among others that red giant stars have been searched for in nearby local group galaxies, principally in our nearest neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds and the dwarf spheroidal galaxies. This paper will be particularly devoted to the slitless spectroscopy surveys for carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds.