The Hipparcos I -band calibration of horizontal-branch red clump giants as standard candles has lead to controversial results for the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC ) .
In an attempt to properly ascertain the corrections for interstellar extinction and clump age and metallicity , we analyze new multi-wavelength luminosity functions of the LMC red clump .
Our photometry dataset in the K -band was obtained with the SOFI infrared imager at the European Southern Observatory ’ s New Technology Telescope .
In the V and I passbands , we employ data from WFPC2 onboard the Hubble Space Telescope .
The LMC red clump is first identified in a K , ( V - K ) color-magnitude diagram .
Our luminosity functions yield apparent magnitudes of K = 16.974 , I = 18.206 , and V = 19.233 ( \pm 0.009 _ { r } \pm 0.02 _ { s } ; random and systematic error , respectively ) .
Compared directly to the Hipparcos red clump calibration ( without a correction for age and metallicity ) , the LMC clump measurements imply a negative interstellar reddening correction .
This unphysical result indicates a population difference between clumps .
A modified calibration based on theoretical modeling yields an average reddening correction of E ( B - V ) = 0.089 \pm 0.015 _ { r } , and a true LMC distance modulus of \mu _ { 0 } = 18.493 \pm 0.033 _ { r } \pm 0.03 _ { s } .
We reconcile our result with the short distance previously derived from OGLE II red clump data .