THE SPLIT RED CLUMP OF THE GALACTIC BULGE FROM OGLE-III

Abstract

The red clump is found to be split into two components along several\nsightlines toward the Galactic Bulge. This split is detected with high\nsignificance toward the areas (-3.5<l<1,b<-5) and (l,b)=(0,+5.2), i.e., along\nthe Bulge minor axis and at least 5 degrees off the plane. The fainter\n(hereafter ``main'') component is the one that more closely follows the\ndistance-longitude relation of the Bulge red clump. The main component is ~0.5\nmagnitudes fainter than the secondary component and with an overall\napproximately equal population. For sightlines further from the plane, the\ndifference in brightness increases, and more stars are found in the secondary\ncomponent than in the main component. The two components have very nearly equal\n(V-I) color.\n