A deep survey of infrared sources in the field of the Small Magellanic Cloud

The authors present a survey at J (1.25 μm) and K (2.2 μm) of 36 arcmin² in the Bar and Inner Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The (J-K) colour-bolometric magnitude diagram is constructed and compared with theory. For the first time a sparsely populated region of the diagram separating proposed carbon stars from oxygen rich stars has been identified. In addition large numbers of red sources have been found apparently fainter than the accepted limit for carbon star formation. These include extremely red sources which are good candidates for OH/IR sources and extreme carbon stars.