K-band red clump distances to the Large Magellanic Cloud clusters Hodge 4 and NGC 1651

We present near-infrared color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) star clusters Hodge 4 and NGC 1651, revealing the helium-burning red clump (RC) stars for the first time in the JK passbands. From these diagrams, which extend to Ksimilar to19, 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 RC absolute magnitude of M-K(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)(0)=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, M-K(RC)=-1.56+/-0.12, E(J-K)=0.06+/-0.01, and (m-M)(0)=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)(0)=18.54+/-0.10.