Evidence of a mis-aligned secondary bar in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

Evidence of a mis-aligned secondary bar, within the primary bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is presented. The density distribution and the de-reddened mean magnitudes ($I_0$) of the red clump stars in the bar obtained from the OGLE II data are used for this study. The bar region which predominantly showed wavy pattern in the line of sight in \citet{a03} was located. These points in the X-Z plane delineate an S-shaped pattern, clearly indicating a mis-aligned bar. This feature is statistically significant and does not depend on the considered value of $I_0$ for the LMC center. The rest of the bar region were not found to show the warp or the wavy pattern. The secondary bar is found to be considerably elongated in the Z-direction, with an inclination of 66${}^o$.5 $\pm$ 0${}^o$.9, whereas the undisturbed part of the primary bar is found to have an inclination of 15${}^o$.1 $\pm$ 2${}^o$.7, such that the eastern sides are closer to us with respect to the western sides of both the bars. The PA${}_{maj}$ of the secondary bar is found to be 108${}^o$.4 $\pm$ 7${}^o$.3. The streaming motions found in the H I velocity map close to the LMC center could be caused by the secondary bar. The recent star formation and the gas distribution in LMC could be driven by the mis-aligned secondary bar.

10 pages, to appear in ApJ Letters

References in corpus (1)

• Direct Confirmation of Two Pattern Speeds in the Double Barred Galaxy NGC 2950

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