AGB stars in metal poor dwarf galaxies - using LPVs and the Fuel Consumption Theorem

as tracers of the stellar population

J. Snigula1,2 , C. Gössl1 and U. Hopp1,2
1
Unisternwarte München, Munich Germany
2
Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany

Using our multi-year observing campaign of a sample of Northern Dwarf Irregular Galaxies of
the Local Group we assembled a sample of long period pulsating variable stars in these galaxies.
Based on the long baseline of continuous observations in the R-Band and thorough completeness
simulations this sample can be considered to be complete.
To further study the AGB star population in these galaxies we acquired photometry in two narrow-
band filters allowing us to select Carbon rich AGB stars independently. With these data we can
explore the fraction of AGB stars undergoing long period variability.
To draw conclusions on the star formation history in these systems, two approaches were combined,
a rough comparison of the CMDs with the location of different isochrones, and a prediction of the
number of AGB stars based on the Fuel Consumption Theorem. For the latter the two independent
AGB star samples were used.
We showed, that the combination of LPV counts with the Fuel Consumption Theorem can be used
to provide further constraints on the presence of an intermediate-age population. For two of the
galaxies we found a strong contribution from a 2-8 Gyr old population, for two others the presence
of a population of such age could be ruled out.