Joint Analysis of near-infrared properties and surface brightness
  fluctuations of LMC star clusters
  Surface brightness fluctuations have been proved to be a very powerful
technique to determine the distance and characterize the stellar content in
extragalactic systems. Nevertheless, before facing the problem of stellar
content in distant galaxies, we need to calibrate the method onto nearby
well-known systems. In this paper we analyze the properties at $J$ and $K_s$
bands of a sample of 19 star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), for
which accurate near-infrared (NIR) resolved star photometry, and integrated
photometry are available. For the same sample, we derive the SBF measurements
in $J$ and $K_s$-bands. We use the multi-purpose stellar population code
\emph{SPoT (Stellar POpulations Tools)} to simulate the color-magnitude
diagram, stellar counts, integrated magnitudes, colors, and surface brightness
fluctuations of each cluster. The present procedure allows us to estimate the
age and metallicity of the clusters in a consistent way, and provides a new
calibration of the empirical $s$-parameter. We take advantage of the high
sensitivity of NIR surface brightness fluctuations to thermally pulsing
asymptotic (TP-AGB) stars to test different mass-loss rates affecting the
evolution of such stars. We argue that NIR-SBFs can contribute to the
disentangling of the observable properties of TP-AGB stars, especially in
galaxies, where a large number of these stars are present.
