Scylla III. The Outside-In Radial Age Gradient in the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Star Formation Histories of the Main Body, Wing and Outer Regions

TL;DR

This study uses Hubble Space Telescope data to analyze the star formation history of the Small Magellanic Cloud, revealing an outside-in age gradient and evidence of past interactions with the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of radial gradients in the SMC's star formation history, highlighting the impact of dwarf-dwarf interactions on its evolution.

Findings

Older stars are found in the outskirts of the SMC.

Radial gradients of star formation history are quantified.

The SMC's wing shows a different, more constant star formation rate.

Abstract

The proximity of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) provides the opportunity to study the impact of dwarf-dwarf interactions on their mass assembly with a unique level of detail. To this end, we analyze two-filter broadband imaging of 83 Hubble Space Telescope (HST) pointings covering 0.203 deg$^2$ towards the SMC, extending out to $\sim$3.5 kpc in projection from its optical center. Lifetime star formation histories (SFHs) fit to each pointing independently reveal an outside-in age gradient such that fields in the SMC outskirts are older on average. We measure radial gradients of the lookback time to form 90%, 75% and 50% of the cumulative stellar mass for the first time, finding $\delta$($\tau_{90}$, $\tau_{75}$, $\tau_{50}$)/$\delta$R = (0.61$^{+0.08}_{-0.07}$, 0.65$^{+0.09}_{-0.08}$, 0.82$^{+0.12}_{-0.16}$) Gyr/kpc assuming PARSEC evolutionary models and a commonly used elliptical geometry of the SMC, although our results are robust to these assumptions. The wing of the SMC deviates from this trend, forming 25\% of its cumulative mass over the most recent 3 Gyr due to a best-fit star formation rate that remains approximately constant. Our results are consistent with chemodynamical evidence of a tidally stripped SMC component in the foreground, and imply contributions to the observed SFH from multiple previous LMC-SMC interactions. We also compare our SMC SFH with results from a companion study of the LMC, finding that while the two galaxies present different internal, spatially resolved SFH trends, both the LMC and SMC have similar near-constant lifetime SFHs when viewed globally.