Other
Scientific paper
Jul 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000hst..prop.8576s&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #8576
Other
Hst Proposal Id #8576 Stellar Populations
Scientific paper
Accurately determining the star-formation rate {SFR} and chemical evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud {LMC} can give us a solid foundation for understanding the evolution of intermediate-mass galaxies and, potentially, the origin of "faint blue galaxies" commonly found in redshift surveys. We propose to continue our WFPC2 imaging survey of field stars in the LMC to obtain color-magnitude diagrams {CMDs} that allow us to determine its SFR from 1 to 15 Gyr ago with unprecedented accuracy. Our goal is to measure 20 percent changes in the SFR, averaged over 1 Gyr intervals, at the 2 sigma level in each region surveyed. We imaged one region at the center of the bar and one region in the disk in Cycle 7, and the resulting CMDs revealed clear differences in their evolution. We now propose to image a third region, in the bar-disk interface, to begin to quantify the evolution of the bar, disk, and halo of the LMC, and to define the spatial extent of star bursts. Our project has generated the best CMDs ever obtained for a galaxy other than the Milky Way. To derive the SFRs, we compare observed and model CMDs using statistically rigorous techniques that we have pioneered, and to surmount the age-metallicity degeneracy inherent in CMDs, we have begun an ambitious project to directly measure stellar abundances by obtaining spectra with ground-based telescopes of approximately 100 red giant stars in each LMC region. In addition, parallel observations with STIS will reach the lower main-sequence stars to M_V = 10. Complete samples of low mass dwarfs with masses greater or equal to 0.5 solar mass will provide high quality information on the time-averaged stellar initial mass function. The densities of these stars in and towards the LMC also test models of gravitational micro-lensing events.
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