Tip of the red-giant branch result is a sharp discontinuity in the evolutionary track of the star on the HR diagram. This discontinuity is called the tip of the red-giant branch. When distant stars at the TRGB are measured in the I-band (in the infrared), their luminosity is somewhat insensitive to their composition of elements heavier than helium (metallicity) or their mass; they are a standard candle with an I-band absolute magnitude of –4.0±0.1. This makes the technique especially useful as a distance indicator. The TRGB indicator uses stars in the old stellar populations (Population II). Tip of the red-giant branch Tip of the red-giant
Red-giant branch terminology is still frequently used today. Modern stellar physics has modelled the internal processes that produce the different phases of the post-main-sequence life of moderate-mass stars, with ever-increasingly complexity and precision. The results of RGB research are themselves being used as the basis for research in other areas. When a star with a mass from about (solar mass) to ( for low-metallicity stars) exhausts its core hydrogen, it enters a phase of hydrogen shell burning during which it becomes a red giant, larger and cooler than on the main sequence. During hydrogen shell burning, the interior of the star goes