K-Band Red Clump Distances to the LMC Clusters Hodge 4 and NGC 1651

We present near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams for the LMC star clusters Hodge 4 and NGC 1651 revealing the helium burning red clump stars for the first time in the JK passbands. From these diagrams, which extend to K~19, and existing optical CMDs that reveal the clusters' main sequence turnoffs, we determine the following cluster parameters. For Hodge 4, we estimate a metallicity of [Fe/H] = -0.17 +/- 0.04, an age of 1.7 +/- 0.3 Gyr, and a red clump absolute magnitude of Mk(RC) = -1.64 +/- 0.17. Along with an adopted reddening of E(J-K) = 0.03 +/- 0.01 based on the Burstein & Heiles and Schlegel et al. reddening maps, we find a distance of (m-M)o = 18.52 +/- 0.17 for Hodge 4. In the case of NGC 1651, we derive [Fe/H] = -0.07 +/- 0.10, an age of 1.8 +/- 0.3 Gyr, Mk(RC) = -1.56 +/- 0.12, E(J-K) = 0.06 +/- 0.01, and (m-M)o =18.55 +/- 0.12, all measured in the same manner as for Hodge 4. Based on these two clusters, we calculate a mean LMC distance of (m-M)o = 18.54 +/- 0.10.