The Red Giant Branch in the Tycho-2 Catalogue
  Based on multicolor photometry from the 2MASS and Tycho-2 catalogues, we have
produced a sample of 38 368 branch red giants that has less than 1\% of
admixtures and is complete within 500 pc of the Sun. The sample includes 30 671
K giants, 7544 M giants, 49 C giants, and 104 suspected supergiants or S stars.
The photometric distances have been calculated for K, M, and C stars with an
accuracy of 40\%. Tycho-2 proper motions and PCRV radial velocities are used to
analyze the stellar kinematics. The decrease in the stellar distribution
density with distance from the Galactic equator approximated by the barometric
law, contrary to the Besancon model of the Galaxy, and the kinematic parameters
calculated using the Ogorodnikov--Milne model characterize the overwhelming
majority of the selected K and M giants as disk stars with ages of more than 3
Gyr. A small number of K and M giants are extremely young or, conversely,
thick-disk ones. The latter show a nonuniform distribution in the phase space
of coordinates and velocities, arguing against isothermality and full
relaxation of the disk and for the theory of dynamical streams or
superclusters. The spatial distribution and kinematics of the selected C stars
force us to consider them as asymptotic branch giants with masses of more than
2 $M_{\odot}$ and ages of less than 2 Gyr probably associated with the Gould
Belt. The offset of the Sun above the Galactic equator has been found from the
distribution of stars to be $13\pm2$ pc, which coincides with the previously
obtained value for the clump red giants.
