J-Branch Asymptotic Giant Branch (JAGB) stars are a photometrically well-defined population of extremely red, intermediate-age AGB stars that are found to have tightly-constrained luminosities in the near-infrared. Based on JK photometry of some 3,300 JAGB stars in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) we find that these very red AGB stars have a constant absolute magnitude of = -6.22 mag, adopting the Detached Eclipsing Binary (DEB) distance to the LMC of 18.477 +/- 0.004 (stat) +/- 0.026 (sys). Undertaking a second, independent calibration in the SMC, which also has a DEB geometric distance, we find = -6.18 +/- $ 0.01 (stat) +/- 0.05~(sys) mag. The scatter is +/-0.27 mag for single-epoch observations, (falling to +/-0.15~mag for multiple observations averaged over a window of more than one year). We provisionally adopt = -6.20 mag +/- 0.01 (stat) +/- 0.04 (sys) mag for the mean absolute magnitude of JAGB stars. Applying this calibration to JAGB stars recently observed in the galaxy NGC 253, we determine a distance modulus of 27.66 +/- 0.01(stat) +/- 0.04 mag (sys), corresponding to a distance of 3.40 +/- 0.06 Mpc (stat). This is in excellent agreement with the averaged TRGB distance modulus of 27.68 +/- 0.05 mag, assuming M_I = -4.05 mag for the TRGB zero point.

中文翻译：

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天体物理距离尺度：AGB J 波段方法。I. 校准和首次应用

J-分支渐近巨星分支 (JAGB) 恒星是光度学上定义明确的极红、中年 AGB 恒星群，发现它们在近红外区域的光度受到严格限制。基于大麦哲伦星云 (LMC) 棒中约 3,300 颗 JAGB 恒星的 JK 光度测量，我们发现这些非常红的 AGB 恒星具有恒定的绝对星等 = -6.22 mag，采用分离食双星 (DEB) 距离LMC 为 18.477 +/- 0.004（统计）+/- 0.026（系统）。在同样具有 DEB 几何距离的 SMC 中进行第二次独立校准，我们发现 = -6.18 +/- $ 0.01 (stat) +/- 0.05~(sys) mag。对于单个时期的观测，散布为 +/-0.27 mag（对于超过一年的窗口平均多次观测下降到 +/-0.15~mag）。我们暂时采用​​ = -6.20 mag +/- 0。JAGB 恒星的平均绝对星等为 01 (stat) +/- 0.04 (sys) mag。将此校准应用于最近在星系 NGC 253 中观察到的 JAGB 恒星，我们确定距离模数为 27.66 +/- 0.01(stat) +/- 0.04 mag (sys)，对应于 3.40 +/- 0.06 Mpc (stat ）。这与平均 TRGB 距离模数 27.68 +/- 0.05 mag 非常吻合，假设 TRGB 零点的 M_I = -4.05 mag。