Spectral analysis of red clump giants and their use as standard candles in the wavebands I and K

Using high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio observational data, we determined the stellar atmospheric parameters of 19 metal-poor red clump giants and their chemical abundances of the four α elements (i.e., O, Mg, Ca, Si). We discuss the variations, with the iron abundance, of the atmospheric parameters and of the α elements abundances. We examined the absolute stellar magnitudes of 58 red clump giants in the I and K wavebands as well as their relations with the iron abundance, and found that for the analysed range of iron abundance, the correlation with the iron abundance is weaker for the absolute magnitude in the K band than that in the I band, in agreement with theoretical expectations.