Chemical abundances in LMC stellar populations I. The Inner disk sample Based on observations collected at the VLT UT2 telescope

TL;DR

This study uses VLT observations to analyze the chemical abundances of various elements in red giant stars of the LMC's inner disk, revealing distinct chemical patterns compared to Milky Way stars.

Contribution

First detailed spectroscopic analysis of LMC inner disk stars using VLT FLAMES, highlighting unique chemical abundance patterns across multiple elements.

Findings

LMC inner disk stars have metallicities from [Fe/H] = -1.76 to -0.02.

Distinct chemical abundance patterns compared to Milky Way stars.

Comprehensive elemental analysis including iron-peak, s-process, Cu, Na, Sc, and alpha-elements.

Abstract

The advent of the new class 8 meters telescopes allows for the first time the detailed study of numerous stars of galaxies other than our own. The Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the most interesting targets due to its proximity and its relatively face-on disk, permitting to separate populations pertaining to the different structures of the galaxy. We have used FLAMES (the Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph) at the VLT-UT2 telescope to obtain spectra of a large sample of stars from the Inner Disk of the LMC, $\sim$2 kpc from the center of the galaxy. We investigate the chemical abundances of iron-peak elements, heavy and light $s$-process elements, Cu, Na, Sc and $\alpha$-elements for a sample of red giant stars. Metallicities for the sample stars range from [Fe/H] = $-$1.76 to $-$0.02. LMC inner disk stars show a definitely different chemical pattern when compared to galactic stars of the same metallicity.