skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The LMC Geometry and Outer Stellar Populations from Early DES Data

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (Online)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv356· OSTI ID:1226324
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [8];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [8];  [7];  [4] more »;  [12];  [13];  [14];  [7];  [8];  [7];  [11];  [15];  [7];  [7];  [7];  [16];  [17];  [6];  [18];  [7];  [8];  [19];  [13];  [20];  [21];  [4];  [7];  [22];  [7];  [9];  [23];  [6];  [6];  [7];  [17];  [5];  [20];  [7];  [24];  [25] « less
  1. Univ. of Surrey, Guildford (United Kingdom); Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre (Brazil); Laboratorio Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia, Rio de Janerio (Brazil)
  2. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre (Brazil); Laboratorio Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia, Rio de Janerio (Brazil)
  3. Osservatorio Astronommic di Padova INAF (Italy)
  4. Laboratorio Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia and Observatorio Nacional, Rio de Janerio (Brazil)
  5. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)
  6. National Optical Astronomy Observatory, La Serena (Chile)
  7. Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
  8. Univ. College London (United Kingdom)
  9. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  10. Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, CA (United States)
  11. Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (France)
  12. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
  13. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  14. Ludwig Maximilian Univ., Munich (Germany); Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching (Germany)
  15. Laboratorio Interinstitucional de e-Astronomia, Rio de Janerio (Brazil)
  16. Ludwig Maximilian Univ., Munich (Germany); Max Planck Inst. for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching (Germany)
  17. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
  18. Australian Astronomical Observatory, North Ryde (Australia)
  19. Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)
  20. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  21. Univesitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain); Institucio Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avancats, Barcelona (Spain)
  22. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  23. Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT), Madrid (Spain)
  24. Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching (Germany); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  25. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The Dark Energy Camera has captured a large set of images as part of Science Verification (SV) for the Dark Energy Survey. The SV footprint covers a large portion of the outer Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), providing photometry 1.5 magnitudes fainter than the main sequence turn-off of the oldest LMC stellar population. We derive geometrical and structural parameters for various stellar populations in the LMC disc. For the distribution of all LMC stars, we find an inclination of i = –38.14°±0.08° (near side in the North) and a position angle for the line of nodes of θ₀ = 129.51°±0.17°. We find that stars younger than ~4 Gyr are more centrally concentrated than older stars. Fitting a projected exponential disc shows that the scale radius of the old populations is R>4Gyr = 1.41 ± 0.01 kpc, while the younger population has R<4Gyr = 0.72 ± 0.01 kpc. However, the spatial distribution of the younger population deviates significantly from the projected exponential disc model. The distribution of old stars suggests a large truncation radius of Rt = 13.5 ± 0.8 kpc. If this truncation is dominated by the tidal field of the Galaxy, we find that the LMC is ≃24+9–6 times less massive than the encircled Galactic mass. By measuring the Red Clump peak magnitude and comparing with the best-fit LMC disc model, we find that the LMC disc is warped and thicker in the outer regions north of the LMC centre. As a result, our findings may either be interpreted as a warped and flared disc in the LMC outskirts, or as evidence of a spheroidal halo component.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
DES Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; SC00112704; AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1226324
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1201363; OSTI ID: 1510826
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-15-045-AE; BNL-108183-2015-JA; arXiv eprint number arXiv:1502.05050
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (Online), Vol. 449, Issue 1; ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 38 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (66)

Evidence for Tidal Effects in the Stellar Dynamics of the Large Magellanic Cloud journal February 2007
Tracing the Hercules Stream Around the Galaxy journal November 2010
The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos journal May 1996
SExtractor: Software for source extraction journal June 1996
Observations and Implications of the Star Formation History of the Large Magellanic Cloud journal November 1999
The Magellanic stream journal June 1974
The Age-Metallicity Relationship of the Large Magellanic Cloud Field star Population from Wide-Field Washington Photometry journal December 2012
Photometry of a complete sample of faint galaxies journal June 1980
Maps of Dust Infrared Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Foregrounds journal June 1998
SINFONI in the Galactic Center: Young Stars and Infrared Flares in the Central Light‐Month journal July 2005
Geometry of the Large Magellanic Cloud Disk: Results from MACHO and the Two Micron All Sky Survey journal January 2004
The Orbit of the star s2 Around sgr a* from very Large Telescope and keck data journal December 2009
Merger Histories of Galaxy Halos and Implications for Disk Survival journal August 2008
The globular cluster NGC 6642: evidence for a depleted mass function in a very old cluster journal July 2009
HEALPix: A Framework for High‐Resolution Discretization and Fast Analysis of Data Distributed on the Sphere journal April 2005
Structure and dynamics of barred spiral galaxies, in particular of the Magellanic type journal January 1972
Kinematic Evidence for an Old Stellar Halo in the Large Magellanic Cloud journal September 2003
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Photometric System journal April 1996
Weighing the Giants – II. Improved calibration of photometry from stellar colours and accurate photometric redshifts journal February 2014
Methods for rapidly processing angular masks of next-generation galaxy surveys journal July 2008
First Results from the noao Survey of the Outer Limits of the Magellanic Clouds journal October 2010
emcee : The MCMC Hammer
  • Foreman-Mackey, Daniel; Hogg, David W.; Lang, Dustin
  • Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 125, Issue 925 https://doi.org/10.1086/670067
journal March 2013
Dynamical analysis of nearby clusters: Automated astrometry from the ground: precision proper motions over a wide field journal June 2013
parsec : stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code journal October 2012
An improved model for the dynamical evolution of dark matter subhaloes: The dynamics of dark matter subhaloes journal September 2010
An imaging K-band survey - I. The catalogue, star and galaxy counts journal January 1994
Where Are the Missing Galactic Satellites? journal September 1999
The 10 Meter South Pole Telescope
  • Carlstrom, J. E.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aird, K. A.
  • Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 123, Issue 903 https://doi.org/10.1086/659879
journal May 2011
A Low Resolution Hydrogen-line Survey of the Magellanic System. II. Interpretation of Results journal January 1963
DAOPHOT - A computer program for crowded-field stellar photometry journal March 1987
The relationship between infrared, optical, and ultraviolet extinction journal October 1989
The VMC survey: I. Strategy and first data journal February 2011
The Dark Energy Survey journal June 2005
The Mysterious bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud: what is it? journal September 2009
Tidal disruption of the Magellanic Clouds by the Milky Way journal August 1998
The Fourth us Naval Observatory ccd Astrograph Catalog (Ucac4) journal January 2013
The Blanco Cosmology Survey: data Acquisition, Processing, Calibration, Quality Diagnostics, and data Release journal September 2012
Numerical methods of star formation history measurement and applications to seven dwarf spheroidals journal May 2002
The dark Energy Survey: Prospects for Resolved Stellar Populations journal May 2011
Structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud from 2MASS journal February 2001
The Spatial Structure of Mono-Abundance Sub-Populations of the Milky way disk journal June 2012
THIRD-EPOCH MAGELLANIC CLOUD PROPER MOTIONS. I. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE /WFC3 DATA AND ORBIT IMPLICATIONS journal February 2013
Large‐Scale Gravitational Instability and Star Formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud journal December 2007
The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) journal February 2006
The role of dwarf galaxy interactions in shaping the Magellanic System and implications for Magellanic Irregulars: The Magellanic System journal February 2012
Star counts in the Galaxy: Simulating from very deep to very shallow photometric surveys with the TRILEGAL code journal June 2005
The continuity of cluster formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud journal May 1988
A Matched-Filter Analysis of the Tidal Tails of the Globular Cluster Palomar 5 journal July 2002
A Warp in the Large Magellanic Cloud Disk? journal October 2002
Clustering of Local Group Distances: Publication bias or Correlated Measurements? i. the Large Magellanic Cloud journal April 2014
Population effects on the red giant clump absolute magnitude, and distance determinations to nearby galaxies journal May 2001
The Observed Properties of Dwarf Galaxies in and Around the Local Group journal June 2012
An analytical model for spherical galaxies and bulges journal June 1990
A secondary clump of red giant stars: why and where journal September 1999
On the variation of the initial mass function journal April 2001
Magellanic Cloud Structure from Near-Infrared Surveys. I. The Viewing Angles of the Large Magellanic Cloud journal October 2001
Constraints on the star formation history of the Large Magellanic Cloud journal February 2005
A new look at the large-scale H I structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud journal February 2003
The VMC survey: IV. The LMC star formation history and disk geometry from four VMC tiles⋆⋆⋆ journal January 2012
Spatially resolved LMC star formation history – I. Outside in evolution of the outer LMC disc journal December 2013
The role of galaxy mergers on the evolution of star clusters journal February 2013
H i in Local Group Dwarf Galaxies and Stripping by the Galactic halo journal April 2009
Dark Matter Substructure within Galactic Halos journal October 1999
Third-Epoch Magellanic Cloud Proper Motions. ii. the Large Magellanic Cloud Rotation Field in Three Dimensions journal January 2014
The Stellar Halo in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Mass, Luminosity, and Microlensing Predictions journal January 2004
Galactic Dynamics (Second Edition) book December 2008

Cited By (16)

The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy – an overview journal March 2016
The Catalina Surveys Southern periodic variable star catalogue journal May 2017
Evidence of differential tidal effects in the old globular cluster population of the Large Magellanic Cloud journal April 2018
Stellar streams around the Magellanic Clouds in 4D journal December 2018
Internal dynamics of the Large Magellanic Cloud from Gaia DR2 journal September 2018
Assessment of Systematic Chromatic Errors that Impact Sub-1% Photometric Precision in Large-Area sky Surveys journal May 2016
SMASHing the LMC: A Tidally Induced Warp in the Outer LMC and a Large-scale Reddening Map journal October 2018
SMASHing the LMC: Mapping a Ring-like Stellar Overdensity in the LMC Disk journal December 2018
An ALMA View of Molecular Filaments in the Large Magellanic Cloud. II. An Early Stage of High-mass Star Formation Embedded at Colliding Clouds in N159W-South journal November 2019
An ALMA View of Molecular Filaments in the Large Magellanic Cloud. I. The Formation of High-mass Stars and Pillars in the N159E-Papillon Nebula Triggered by a Cloud–Cloud Collision journal November 2019
OGLE-ing the Magellanic System: RR Lyrae Stars in the Bridge journal January 2020
The Dark Energy Survey: more than dark energy - an overview text January 2016
SMASHing THE LMC: Mapping a Ring-like Stellar Overdensity in the LMC Disk text January 2018
Internal dynamics of the Large Magellanic Cloud from Gaia DR2 text January 2018
Stellar streams around the Magellanic Clouds in 4D text January 2018
OGLE-ing the Magellanic System: RR Lyrae Stars in the Bridge text January 2019

Similar Records

The LMC geometry and outer stellar populations from early DES data
Journal Article · Sat Mar 14 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · OSTI ID:1226324
+52 more
FIRST RESULTS FROM THE NOAO SURVEY OF THE OUTER LIMITS OF THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS
Journal Article · Wed Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online) · OSTI ID:1226324
+10 more
Dynamical heating across the Milky Way disc using APOGEE and Gaia
Journal Article · Thu Aug 29 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · OSTI ID:1226324
+14 more

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
stars:statistics
magellanic clouds
galaxies: stellar content
galaxies: magellanic clouds
stars: statistics