Accurate radial velocity and metallicity of the Large Magellanic Cloud old globular clusters NGC 1928 and NGC 1939

TL;DR

This study spectroscopically analyzed two old globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud to determine their velocities and metallicities, confirming their association with the LMC disc and providing insights into its early formation and chemical evolution.

Contribution

First spectroscopic measurements of radial velocities and metallicities for NGC 1928 and NGC 1939, confirming their LMC disc membership and shedding light on the galaxy's early formation history.

Findings

Both clusters are part of the LMC disc based on velocities and positions.

Most GCs share the LMC rotation, indicating early disc formation.

Some GCs likely originated from the SMC, not in situ formation.

Abstract

We present results obtained from spectroscopic observations of red giants located in the fields of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) globular clusters (GCs) NGC 1928 and NGC 1939. We used the GMOS and AAOmega+2dF spectrographs to obtain spectra centred on the CaII triplet, from which we derived individual radial velocities (RVs) and metallicities. From cluster members we derived mean RVs of RV_NGC1928=249.58+-4.65 km/s and RV_NGC939=258.85+-2.08 km/s, and mean metallicities of [Fe/H]_NGC1928=-1.30+-0.15 dex and [Fe/H]_NGC1939=-2.00+-0.15 dex. We found that both GCs have RVs and positions consistent with being part of the LMC disc, so that we rule out any possible origin but that in the same galaxy. By computing the best solution of a disc that fully contains each GC, we obtained circular velocities for the 15 known LMC GCs. We found that 11/15 of the GCs share the LMC rotation derived from $HST$ and $Gaia$ DR2 proper motions. This outcome reveals that the LMC disc existed since the very early epoch of the galaxy formation and experienced the steep relatively fast chemical enrichment shown by its GC metallicities. The four remaining GCs turned out to have circular velocities not compatible with an in situ cluster formation, but rather with being stripped from the SMC.