The Araucaria Project. Distances to Nine Galaxies Based on a Statistical Analysis of their Carbon Stars (JAGB Method)

Our work presents an independent calibration of the J-region Asymptotic Giant (JAGB) method using Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF) photometric data and custom luminosity function profile to determine JAGB mean magnitudes for nine. We determine a mean absolute magnitude of carbon stars ofM₋₌₂=-6. 212 \ 0. 010 (stat. ) \ 0. 030 (syst. ) mag. We then use-infrared photometry of a number of nearby galaxies, originally obtained by group to determine their distances from Cepheids using the Leavitt law, in to independently determine their distances with the JAGB method. We the JAGB distances obtained in this work with the Cepheid distances from the same photometry and find very good agreement between the from the two methods. The mean difference is 0. 01 mag with an rms of 0. 06 mag after taking into account seven out of the eight analyzed that had their distances determined using Cepheids. The very accurate to the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) based on detached eclipsing (Graczyk et al. 2020) is also in very good agreement with the distance from carbon stars.