Study of the Extinction Law in M31 and Selection of Red Supergiants

An average value of the total-to-selective-extinction ratio R_V=3.8 +/- 0.4 in M31 is obtained by means of two independent methods and by use of the analytical formula of Cardelli, Clayton & Mathis (1989). This result differs from previous determinations as well from the `standard' value 3.1 for the Milky Way. The derived individual extinctions for blue and red luminous stars from the catalogue of Magnier et al. (1992) are in good agreement with recent estimates for several OB associations in M31 and thus the issue about the assumed optical opacity of the spiral disk still remains open. The presented list of 113 red supergiant candidates in M31 with their extinctions and luminosities contains 60 new objects of this type which are not identified in other publications. It is supplemented with further 290 stars dereddened on the base of results for their closest neighbors. The luminosity function of all red supergiant candidates and the percentage of those with progenitors over 20 solar masses suggests that the evolution of massive stars in M31 resembles that in other Local Group galaxies.