The IR stellar population around the Galactic Centre

Abstract

We present K-counts for a number of stars with K ≤ +9.0 in 3 clear regions near the galactic centre. They are located approximately at l∼0.0 and b ∼ −3.5, −4.0 and −4.5. Their Cumulative Counts Functions (CCF's) are formed, and with the aid of an exponential disc model for the Galaxy are separated into disc and bulge CCF. As for the case in Baade's Window (BW) (Ruelas-Mayorga and Teague, 1992a) the disc is dominant at bright magnitudes whereas the bulge dominates at fainter ones. The slope of the bulge CCF is steeper than that for the disc in all cases corroborating the result obtained for BW. The two colour JHK and the K vs J-K diagrams show that the stellar population in these areas is similar to that studied in BW by us and by Frogel and Whitford (1987). An average E(J-K) ∼0.42 mag for the reddening is obtained. At K ≤ +9.0, the disc may be accounted for by those sources with J-K ≤ +1.6 whereas the bulge population presents values for J-K in excess of +1.6.