Str\"omgren photometric metallicity map of the Magellanic Cloud stars using Gaia DR3--XP spectra

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia DR3 XP spectra to create detailed metallicity maps of the Magellanic Clouds, revealing complex radial gradients and structural influences on their chemical evolution.

Contribution

First homogeneous photometric metallicity maps for both young and old stars across the Magellanic Clouds using Gaia XP spectra and Strömgren calibration.

Findings

Radial metallicity gradients decrease linearly from the center outward.

Multiple breakpoints indicate different structural and evolutionary regions.

Gradients are consistent with previous studies but show complex variations.

Abstract

One important key in understanding a galaxy's evolution is to study the consequences of its past dynamical interactions that influenced its shape. By measuring the metallicity distribution of stellar populations with different ages, one can learn about these interactions. The Magellanic Clouds, being the nearest pair of interacting dwarf galaxies with a morphology characterised by different tidal and kinematic sub-structures as well as a vast range of stellar populations, represent an excellent place to study the consequences of dwarf-dwarf galaxy interactions and with their large host, the Milky Way. We aim to determine the metallicities ([Fe/H]) of red giant branch (old) and supergiant (young) stars covering the entire galaxies, estimate their radial metallicity gradients and produce homogeneous metallicity maps. We use the XP spectra from Gaia Data Release 3 to calculate synthetic Str\"omgren magnitudes from the application of the GaiaXPy tool and adopt calibration relations from the literature to estimate the metallicities. We present photometric metallicity maps for ~90,000 young stars and ~270,000 old stars within ~11 deg of the Small Magellanic Cloud and ~20 deg of the Large Magellanic Cloud from a homogeneous dataset. We find that the overall radial metallicity gradients decrease linearly in agreement with previous studies. We apply piecewise-regression fitting to derive the gradients within different radial regions. The overall metallicity gradients, traced by young and old stars, decrease from the centre to the outskirts of both galaxies. However, they show multiple breakpoints depicting regions following different and sometime opposite trends. These are associated to the structure of the galaxies, their history of star formation and chemical evolution but may be influenced by a low number of sources, especially at the centre (due to crowding) and in the outermost regions.