The Recent Star Formation History of the Large Magellanic Cloud

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Cepheids, Supergiants

Scientific paper

Cepheids and other supergiants are well suited as tracers of the recent star formation history of the LMC. We used 2138 supergiants with UBV photometry from various databases and performed an age calibration of UBV colors based on Geneva models. We also used 1170 LMC Cepheids. We calibrated their periods versus age using Cepheids in 16 open clusters and Geneva isochrones. The resulting data set covers a time period from approximately 300 million years ago to the present. Our data show the spatial variations in star formation along the LMC bar from the southeast to the northwest and the formation of the currently observed supergiant shells surrounding the bar. We find Isserstedt's (1984) conclusion confirmed that global star formation occurred stochastically across the face of the LMC. The highly heterogeneous gas distribution prevents self-propagating star formation on a large scale. The age structure of the LMC does not support the recently suggested scenario for bow-shock-induced star formation (de Boer et al. 1998; de Boer 1998, see p. 125). Also, the data show that 30 Dor did not form through collision of the supergiant shells LMC 2 and LMC 3. Massive star formation in 30 Dor and LMC 3 started almost simultaneously and spread later toward LMC 2. The supergiant shells that we observe today appear to exhibit several star formation episodes, the oldest dating back 20 to 25 million years. Typical time scales for continuing large-scale star formation on length scales of 0.5 to 1 kpc seem to range from 15 to 30 million years.

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