Deep near-infrared images obtained with adaptive optics ( AO ) systems on the Gemini North and Canada-France-Hawaii telescopes are used to investigate the bright stellar content and central regions of the nearby elliptical galaxy Maffei 1 .
Stars evolving on the upper asymptotic giant branch ( AGB ) are resolved in a field 3 arcmin from the center of the galaxy .
The locus of bright giants on the ( K,H - K ) color-magnitude diagram is consistent with a population of stars like those in Baade ’ s Window reddened by E ( H - K ) = 0.28 \pm 0.05 mag .
This corresponds to A _ { V } = 4.5 \pm 0.8 mag , and is consistent with previous estimates of the line of sight extinction computed from the integrated properties of Maffei 1 .
The AGB-tip occurs at K = 20.0 , which correponds to M _ { K } = -8.7 ; hence , the AGB-tip brightness in Maffei 1 is comparable to that in M32 , NGC 5128 , and the bulges of M31 and the Milky-Way .
The near-infrared luminosity functions ( LFs ) of bright AGB stars in Maffei 1 , M32 , and NGC 5128 are also in excellent agreement , both in terms of overall shape and the relative density of infrared-bright stars with respect to the fainter stars that dominate the light at visible and red wavelengths .
It is concluded that the brightest AGB stars in Maffei 1 , NGC 5128 , M32 , and the bulge of M31 trace an old , metal-rich population , rather than an intermediate age population .
It is also demonstrated that Maffei 1 contains a distinct red nucleus , and this is likely the optical signature of low-level nuclear activity and/or a distinct central stellar population .
Finally , there is an absence of globular clusters brighter than the peak of the globular cluster LF in the central 700 \times 700 parsecs of Maffei 1 .