  A study of the stellar population of the M31 spiral arm around OB association
A24 was carried out based on the photometric data obtained from deep V and JHK
imaging. The luminosity function was obtained for -7 <~ Mbol <~ -3.5 by
applying the extinction correction corresponding to Av=1 and the bolometric
correction BC(K) as an empirical function of (J-K)o. In comparing the observed
color-luminosity diagrams with semitheoretical isochrones modified for the
dust-shell effects, we found the young population of t <~ 30 Myr with
supergiants of Mbol <~ -5, the bulk of the intermediate-age population of t ~
0.2 - 2.5 Gyr with bright asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars of -5 <~ Mbol <~
-4, and old populations of t ~> 3 Gyr with AGB and red giant branch (RGB) stars
of Mbol ~> -4. The average star formation rate was estimated to be ~1.8x10^4
M_o/Myr and ~0.7x10^4 M_o/Myr per deprojected disk area of 1 kpc^2 from the
number density of B0 V stars around Mv=-4.0 (age ~10 Myr) and the number
density of bright AGB stars around Mbol = -4.3 (age ~1 Gyr), respectively. A
study of the local variation in the V and the J and H luminosity functions
revealed a kind of anticorrelation between the population of the young
component and that of the intermediate-age component when subdomains of ~100 pc
scales were concerned. This finding suggests that the disk domain around the
A24 area experienced a series of star formation episodes alternatively among
different subdomains with a timescale of a few spiral passage periods. Brief
discussions are given about the interstellar extinction and about the lifetimes
of bright AGB stars and the highly red objects (HROs) in the same area.
