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Title: Physical properties of star clusters in the outer LMC as observed by the DES

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
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The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) harbors a rich and diverse system of star clusters, whose ages, chemical abundances, and positions provide information about the LMC history of star formation. We use Science Verification imaging data from the Dark Energy Survey to increase the census of known star clusters in the outer LMC and to derive physical parameters for a large sample of such objects using a spatially and photometrically homogeneous data set. Our sample contains 255 visually identified cluster candidates, of which 109 were not listed in any previous catalog. We quantify the crowding effect for the stellar sample produced by the DES Data Management pipeline and conclude that the stellar completeness is < 10% inside typical LMC cluster cores. We therefore develop a pipeline to sample and measure stellar magnitudes and positions around the cluster candidates using DAOPHOT. We also implement a maximum-likelihood method to fit individual density profiles and colour-magnitude diagrams. For 117 (from a total of 255) of the cluster candidates (28 uncatalogued clusters), we obtain reliable ages, metallicities, distance moduli and structural parameters, confirming their nature as physical systems. The distribution of cluster metallicities shows a radial dependence, with no clusters more metal-rich than [Fe/H] ~ -0.7 beyond 8 kpc from the LMC center. Furthermore, the age distribution has two peaks at ≃ 1.2 Gyr and ≃ 2.7 Gyr.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
DES Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1330367
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1512.01032; FERMILAB-PUB-15-655-A; 1494341
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 461, Issue 1; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 21 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

A likely runaway star cluster in the outer disc of the Large Magellanic Cloud journal October 2018
A deep view of a fossil relic in the Galactic bulge: the Globular Cluster HP 1 journal January 2019
The VISCACHA survey – I. Overview and first results journal February 2019
Stellar Streams Discovered in the Dark Energy Survey journal July 2018
SMASHing the LMC: A Tidally Induced Warp in the Outer LMC and a Large-scale Reddening Map journal October 2018

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
methods: statistical
Magellanic Cloud
galaxies: stars clusters: general