Stellar Populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud from 2MASS

Abstract

We present a morphological analysis of the feature-rich 2MASS LMC color-magnitude diagram, identifying Galactic and LMC populations and estimating the density of LMC populations alone. We also present the projected spatial distributions of various stellar populations. Major populations are identified based on matching morphological features of the CMD with expected positions of known populations, isochrone fits, and analysis of the projected spatial distributions. The LMC populations along the first-ascent RGB and AGB are quantified. We find the RGB tip at $K_s=12.3\pm 0.1$. Preliminary isochrone analysis is done for giant populations in the bar and the outer regions of the Cloud. We find no significant differences in metallicities and ages between the fields. The observed LMC giant branch is well-fit by published tracks in the CIT/CTIO system with a distance modulus of $\mu =18.5\pm 0.1$, reddening $E_{B-V}=0.15-0.20$, metallicity $Z=0.004_{-0.001}^{+0.002}$ and age 3-13 Gyr. Analysis of deep 2MASS engineering data with six times the standard exposure produces similar estimates.

32 pages including 11 figures and 3 tables. Submitted to ApJ

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