The VMC Survey -- XLVIII. Classical Cepheids unveil the 3D geometry of the LMC

Abstract

We employed the {\it VISTA near-infrared $YJ{K}_{\mathrm{s}}$ survey of the Magellanic System} (VMC), to analyse the $Y,J,K_{\mathrm{s}}$ light curves of $\delta$ Cepheid stars (DCEPs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Our sample consists of 4408 objects accounting for 97 per cent of the combined list of OGLE\,IV and {\it Gaia}\,DR2 DCEPs. We determined a variety of period-luminosity ($PL$) and period-Wesenheit $PW$ relationships for Fundamental (F) and First Overtone (1O) pulsators. We discovered for the first time a break in these relationships for 1O DCEPs at $P$=0.58 d. We derived relative individual distances for DCEPs in the LMC with a precision of $\sim$1 kpc, calculating the position angle of the line of nodes and inclination of the galaxy: $\theta$=145.6$\pm$1.0 deg and $i$=25.7$\pm$0.4 deg. The bar and the disc are seen under different viewing angles. We calculated the ages of the pulsators, finding two main episodes of DCEP formation lasting $\sim$40 Myr which happened 93 and 159 Myr ago. Likely as a result of its past interactions with the SMC, the LMC shows a non-planar distribution, with considerable structuring: the bar is divided into two distinct portions, the eastern and the western displaced by more than 1 kpc from each other. Similar behaviour is shown by the spiral arms. The LMC disc appears "flared" and thick, with a disc scale height of $h\sim 0.97$ kpc. This feature can be explained by strong tidal interactions with the Milky Way and/or the Small Magellanic Cloud or past merging events with now disrupted LMC satellites.

arXiv comment22 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication on MNRAS. Tables 1 and 2 are available in advance of publication upon request from the first author

References in corpus (83)

• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• The Gaia mission
• PARSEC: stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code
• Gaia Data Release 1. Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties
• The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)
• The Galaxy in Context: Structural, Kinematic and Integrated Properties
• The Milky Way Tomography with SDSS: I. Stellar Number Density Distribution
• Color Transformations for the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release
• The Atlas3D project - XV. Benchmark for early-type galaxies scaling relations from 260 dynamical models: mass-to-light ratio, dark matter, Fundamental Plane and Mass Plane
• A distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud that is precise to one per cent
• Gaia Data Release 2: Kinematics of globular clusters and dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way
• New Understanding of Large Magellanic Cloud Structure, Dynamics and Orbit from Carbon Star Kinematics
• Third-Epoch Magellanic Cloud Proper Motions I: HST/WFC3 data and Orbit Implications
• Magellanic Cloud Structure from Near-IR Surveys I: The Viewing Angles of the LMC
• The Hubble Constant
• The Role of Dwarf Galaxy Interactions in Shaping the Magellanic System and Implications for Magellanic Irregulars
• The Updated BaSTI Stellar Evolution Models and Isochrones: I. Solar Scaled Calculations
• The VMC Survey - I. Strategy and First Data
• The Origin of the Magellanic Stream and Its Leading Arm
• Third-Epoch Magellanic Cloud Proper Motions II: The Large Magellanic Cloud Rotation Field in Three Dimensions
• The VISTA Science Archive
• Life in the fast lane: a direct view of the dynamics, formation, and evolution of the Milky Way's bar
• A distance determination to the Small Magellanic Cloud with an accuracy of better than 2 percent based on late-type eclipsing binary stars
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? I. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Tidal Origin of the Magellanic Stream and the Possibility of a Stellar Counterpart
• On the Effect of Rotation on Populations of Classical Cepheids II. Pulsation Analysis for Metallicities 0.014, 0.006, and 0.002
• The 200 Degree-Long Magellanic Stream System
• Magellanic Cloud Structure from Near-IR Surveys II: Star Count Maps and the Intrinsic Elongation of the LMC
• Classical Cepheid Pulsation Models. X. The Period-Age Relation
• Formation and evolution of the Magellanic Clouds. I.Origin of structural, kinematical, and chemical properties of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The VISTA ZYJHKs Photometric System: Calibration from 2MASS
• OGLE-ing the Magellanic System: Optical Reddening Maps of the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud from Red Clump Stars
• A Population of Accreted SMC Stars in the LMC
• A re-classification of Cepheids in the Gaia Data Release 2
• The VMC Survey. XXV. The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from Classical Cepheids
• All-Sky Dynamical Response of the Galactic Halo to the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Proper Motion Field of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Kinematic Evidence for its Tidal Disruption
• Structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud from 2MASS
• The Rotation Curve of the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Implications for Microlensing
• SMASHing the LMC: A Tidally-induced Warp in the Outer LMC and a Large-scale Reddening Map
• The Magellanic Stream System: I. Ram-pressure tails and the relics of the collision between the Magellanic Clouds
• A 10 kpc stellar substructure at the edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud: perturbed outer disk or evidence for tidal stripping?
• Gaia Data Release 1 - The Cepheid & RR Lyrae star pipeline and its application to the south ecliptic pole region
• Effect of the Milky Way on Magellanic Cloud structure
• The VMC Survey. V. First results for Classical Cepheids
• The panchromatic view of the Magellanic Clouds from Classical Cepheids. I. Distance, Reddening and Geometry of the Large Magellanic Cloud disk
• The VMC Survey. XIII. Type II Cepheids in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Proper Motion Field Along the Magellanic Bridge: a New Probe of the LMC-SMC Interaction
• Three dimensional maps of the Magellanic Clouds using RR~Lyrae stars and Cepheids - I. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• Substructures and tidal distortions in the Magellanic stellar periphery
• The Origin of the Microlensing Events Observed Towards the LMC and the Stellar Counterpart of the Magellanic Stream
• Empirical calibration of the reddening maps in the Magellanic Clouds
• Toward a Complete Understanding of the Magellanic Stream Formation
• The So-Called "Bar" in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Clouds in Arms
• The VMC Survey - X. Cepheids, RR Lyrae stars and binaries as probes of the Magellanic System's structure
• The VMC Survey - XXIV. Signatures of tidally stripped stellar populations from the inner Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VMC Survey -- XXXIV. Morphology of Stellar Populations in the Magellanic Clouds
• Structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud from the Near Infrared magnitudes of Red Clump stars
• Impacts of a Flaring Star-forming Disc and Stellar Radial Mixing on the Vertical Metallicity Gradient
• The VMC survey - XV. The Small Magellanic Cloud--Bridge connection history as traced by their star cluster populations
• The VMC Survey. VIII. First results for Anomalous Cepheids
• The VMC Survey. XIX. Classical Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Mid-Infrared Extinction Law in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• STEP: The VST survey of the SMC and the Magellanic Bridge. I. Overview and first results
• The VMC survey - XXIII. Model fitting of light and radial velocity curves of Small Magellanic Cloud classical Cepheids
• The VMC Survey -- XLII. Near-infrared period-luminosity relations for RR Lyrae stars and the structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Disk of the Small Magellanic Cloud as traced by Cepheids
• A SkyMapper view of the Large Magellanic Cloud: The dynamics of stellar populations
• On the Recovery of the Star Formation History of the LMC from the VISTA Survey of the Magellanic System
• Stellar substructures in the periphery of the Magellanic Clouds with the VISTA Hemisphere Survey from the red clump and other tracers
• The VMC Survey -- XL. Three-dimensional structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud as derived from red clump stars
• The VMC survey -- XXXVIII. Proper motion of the Magellanic Bridge
• Period-Age-Metallicity and Period-Age-Color-Metallicity relations for Classical Cepheids: an application to the Gaia EDR3 sample
• Formation of the off-center bar in the Large Magellanic Cloud: A collision with a dark satellite ?
• Cepheids with giant companions. I. Revealing a numerous population of double-lined binary Cepheids
• Preliminary results for RR Lyrae stars and Classical Cepheids from the Vista Magellanic Cloud (VMC) Survey
• Chemical and structural analysis of the Large Magellanic Cloud using the fundamental mode RR Lyrae stars
• Homing in on Polaris: A 7 M${}_{\odot }$ first-overtone Cepheid entering the instability strip for the first time
• Presence of red giant population in the foreground stellar sub-structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VMC Survey - XX. Identification of new Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• HD344787: a true Polaris analogue?
• Geometry of the Large Magellanic Cloud Using Multi- wavelength Photometry of Classical Cepheids

Cited by in corpus (23)

• Gaia DR3: Specific processing and validation of all-sky RR Lyrae and Cepheid stars -- The Cepheid sample
• An Improved Calibration of the Wavelength Dependence of Metallicity on the Cepheid Leavitt law
• Kinematic analysis of the Large Magellanic Cloud using Gaia DR3
• Oxygen, sulfur, and iron radial abundance gradients of classical Cepheids across the Galactic thin disk
• Mapping radial abundance gradients with Gaia-ESO open clusters: Evidence of recent gas accretion in the Milky Way disk
• Extending the extinction law in 30 Doradus to the infrared with JWST
• Vertical structure and kinematics of the LMC disc from SDSS/Gaia
• Empirical instability strip for classical Cepheids: I. The LMC galaxy
• Discovery of a binary-origin classical Cepheid in a binary system with a 59-day orbital period
• Synthetic population of binary Cepheids. I. The effect of metallicity and initial parameter distribution on characteristics of Cepheids' companions
• A multiphase study of theoretical and observed light curves of classical Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds
• First Overtone Cepheids of the OGLE Magellanic Cloud Collection -- beyond radial modes
• Spectral energy distributions of classical cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds
• Braving the Storm: Quantifying Disk-wide Ionized Outflows in the Large Magellanic Cloud with ULLYSES
• The VMC survey -- LIV. The internal kinematics of the LMC with new VISTA observations
• The YMCA (Yes, Magellanic Clouds Again) survey: probing the outer regions of the Magellanic system with VST
• The VMC survey -- LIII. Data release #7. Complete survey data and data from additional programmes
• The VMC Survey -- LIV. Anomalous Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds Period-Luminosity relations in the near-infrared bands
• Cepheid Metallicity in the Leavitt Law (C-MetaLL) survey: IX. Metallicity dependence of Period-Wesenheit relations based on a homogeneous spectroscopic sample
• The light curve model fitting of LMC Cepheids: MESA-RSP versus Stellingwerf's code predictions
• Peeping into recent star formation history of the Magellanic Clouds
• Bar pattern speed modulation across LMC stellar populations
• Cepheid Metallicity in the Leavitt Law (C--MetaLL) survey: VIII. High-Resolution IGRINS Spectroscopy of 23 Classical Cepheids: Validating NIR Abundances