Determination of reddening and age for ten Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters from integrated spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study provides flux-calibrated integrated spectra for 10 Large Magellanic Cloud star clusters, deriving their reddening and ages using spectral comparison and diagnostic methods, thus enriching the spectral library at LMC metallicity.

Contribution

It offers new spectral data and age-reddening estimates for poorly studied LMC clusters, including two previously unobserved objects, enhancing the existing spectral library at LMC metallicity.

Findings

Ages range from 1 Myr to 240 Myr.

Reddening values are derived for all clusters.

Provides spectral data for two previously unstudied clusters.

Abstract

We present flux-calibrated integrated spectra in the optical range (3700-6800 \AA) obtained at Complejo Astron\'omico El Leoncito (CASLEO, Argentina) for a sample of 10 concentrated star clusters belonging to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). No previous data exist for two of these objects (SL 142 and SL 624), while most of the remaining clusters have been only poorly studied. We derive simultaneously foreground $E(B-V)$ reddening values and ages for the cluster sample by comparing their integrated spectra with template LMC cluster spectra and with two different sets of simple stellar population models. Cluster reddening values and ages are also derived from both available interstellar extinction maps and by using diagnostic diagrams involving the sum of equivalent widths of some selected spectral features and their calibrations with age, respectively. For the studied sample, we derive ages between 1 Myr and 240 Myr. In an effort to create a spectral library at the LMC metallicity level with several clusters per age range, the cluster sample here presented stands out as a useful complement to previous ones.