Extinction in the Large Magellanic Cloud Bar around NGC1854, NGC1856, and NGC1858

TL;DR

This study investigates the extinction properties in the Large Magellanic Cloud's bar around specific clusters, revealing variable extinction with a uniform reddening law and evidence of large grains likely produced by supernovae.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of extinction variations and properties in these regions, highlighting the presence of large grains and their possible origin from supernova activity.

Findings

Extinction varies from Av~0.2 to Av~1.9 across the fields.

Reddening vectors align with Galactic extinction laws, indicating a uniform reddening law.

Presence of large grains suggests supernovae as a source of grey extinction component.

Abstract

We report on the extinction properties in the fields around the clusters NGC 1854, NGC 1856, and NGC 1858 in the bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud. The colour-magnitude diagrams of the stars in all these regions show an elongated red giant clump that reveals a variable amount of extinction across these fields, ranging from Av~0.2 to Av~1.9, including Galactic foreground extinction. The extinction properties nonetheless are remarkably uniform. The slope of the reddening vectors measured in the (V-I,V) and (B-I,B) colour-magnitude planes is fully in line with the Av/E(B-V)~5.5 value found in the outskirts of 30 Dor. This indicates the presence of an additional grey extinction component in the optical requiring big grains to be about twice as abundant as in the diffuse Galactic interstellar medium (ISM). Areas of higher extinction appear to be systematically associated with regions of more intense star formation, as measured by the larger number of stars more massive than 8 Msun, thus making injection of big grains into the ISM by SNII explosion the likely mechanism at the origin of the observed grey extinction component.