New Colour-Mass to Light Relations: the role of the Asymptotic Giant Branch phase and of interstellar dust

Colour–M*/L (mass-to-light) relations are a popular recipe to derive stellar mass in external galaxies. Stellar mass estimates often rely on near-infrared (NIR) photometry, considered an optimal tracer since it is little affected by dust and by the ‘frosting’ effect of recent star formation episodes. However, recent literature has highlighted that theoretical estimates of the NIR M*/L ratio strong...