TY - JOUR A1 - Subramanian, Smitha A1 - Rubele, Stefano A1 - Sun, Ning-Chen A1 - Girardi, Leo A1 - de Grijs, Richard A1 - van Loon, Jacco Th. A1 - Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. A1 - Piatti, Andres E. A1 - Bekki, Kenji A1 - Emerson, Jim A1 - Ivanov, Valentin D. A1 - Kerber, Leandro A1 - Marconi, Marcella A1 - Ripepi, Vincenzo A1 - Tatton, Benjamin L. T1 - The VMC Survey - XXIV. Signatures of tidally stripped stellar populations from the inner Small Magellanic Cloud JF - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society KW - stars: individual: red clump stars KW - galaxies: interactions KW - Magellanic Clouds Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx205 SN - 0035-8711 SN - 1365-2966 VL - 467 SP - 2980 EP - 2995 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sun, Ning-Chen A1 - de Grijs, Richard A1 - Subramanian, Smitha A1 - Bekki, Kenji A1 - Bell, Cameron P. M. A1 - Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. A1 - Ivanov, Valentin D. A1 - Marconi, Marcella A1 - Oliveira, Joana M. A1 - Piatti, Andres E. A1 - Ripepi, Vincenzo A1 - Rubele, Stefano A1 - Tatton, Ben L. A1 - van Loon, Jacco Th. T1 - The VMC Survey. XXII. Hierarchical Star Formation in the 30 Doradus-N158–N159–N160 Star-forming Complex JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - Star formation is a hierarchical process, forming young stellar structures of star clusters, associations, and complexes over a wide range of scales. The star-forming complex in the bar region of the Large Magellanic Cloud is investigated with upper main-sequence stars observed by the VISTA Survey of the Magellanic Clouds. The upper main-sequence stars exhibit highly nonuniform distributions. Young stellar structures inside the complex are identified from the stellar density map as density enhancements of different significance levels. We find that these structures are hierarchically organized such that larger, lower-density structures contain one or several smaller, higher-density ones. They follow power-law size and mass distributions, as well as a lognormal surface density distribution. All these results support a scenario of hierarchical star formation regulated by turbulence. The temporal evolution of young stellar structures is explored by using subsamples of upper main-sequence stars with different magnitude and age ranges. While the youngest subsample, with a median age of log(tau/yr) = 7.2, contains the most substructure, progressively older ones are less and less substructured. The oldest subsample, with a median age of log(tau/yr) = 8.0, is almost indistinguishable from a uniform distribution on spatial scales of 30-300. pc, suggesting that the young stellar structures are completely dispersed on a timescale of similar to 100. Myr. These results are consistent with the characteristics of the 30. Doradus complex and the entire Large Magellanic Cloud, suggesting no significant environmental effects. We further point out that the fractal dimension may be method dependent for stellar samples with significant age spreads. KW - infrared: stars KW - Magellanic Clouds KW - stars: formation Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa911e SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 849 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. A1 - Bekki, Kenji A1 - Girardi, Leo A1 - de Grijs, Richard A1 - Irwin, Mike J. A1 - Ivanov, Valentin D. A1 - Marconi, Marcella A1 - Oliveira, Joana M. A1 - Piatti, Andres E. A1 - Ripepi, Vincenzo A1 - van Loon, Jacco Th. T1 - XVII. Proper motions of the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Milky Way globular cluster 47 Tucanae JF - Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics N2 - Aims. In this study we use multi-epoch near-infrared observations from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Cloud system (VMC) to measure the proper motions of different stellar populations in a tile of 1.5 deg2 in size in the direction of the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tuc. We obtain the proper motion of the cluster itself, of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and of the field Milky Way stars. Methods. Stars of the three main stellar components are selected according to their spatial distributions and their distributions in colour−magnitude diagrams. Their average coordinate displacement is computed from the difference between multiple Ks-band observations for stars as faint as Ks = 19 mag. Proper motions are derived from the slope of the best-fitting line among ten VMC epochs over a time baseline of ~1 yr. Background galaxies are used to calibrate the absolute astrometric reference frame. Results. The resulting absolute proper motion of 47 Tuc is (μαcos(δ), μδ) = (+7.26 ± 0.03, −1.25 ± 0.03) mas yr-1. This measurement refers to about 35 000 sources distributed between 10′ and 60′ from the cluster centre. For the SMC we obtain (μαcos(δ), μδ) = (+1.16 ± 0.07, −0.81 ± 0.07) mas yr-1 from about 5250 red clump and red giant branch stars. The absolute proper motion of the Milky Way population in the line of sight (l = 305.9, b = −44.9) of this VISTA tile is (μαcos(δ), μδ) = (+10.22 ± 0.14, −1.27 ± 0.12) mas yr-1 and has been calculated from about 4000 sources. Systematic uncertainties associated with the astrometric reference system are 0.18 mas yr-1. Thanks to the proper motion we detect 47 Tuc stars beyond its tidal radius. KW - proper motions KW - surveys KW - Magellanic Clouds KW - globular clusters: individual: 47 Tucanae Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201527004 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 586 SP - 67 EP - 75 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ivanov, Valentin D. A1 - Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. A1 - Bekki, Kenji A1 - de Grijs, Richard A1 - Emerson, Jim A1 - Gibson, Brad K. A1 - Kamath, Devika A1 - van Loon, Jacco Th. A1 - Piatti, Andres E. A1 - For, Bi-Qing T1 - New quasars behind the Magellanic Clouds. Spectroscopic confirmation of near-infrared selected candidates JF - Current biology N2 - Context. Quasi-stellar objects (quasars) located behind nearby galaxies provide an excellent absolute reference system for astrometric studies, but they are difficult to identify because of fore-and background contamination. Deep wide-field, high angular resolution surveys spanning the entire area of nearby galaxies are needed to obtain a complete census of such quasars. Aims. We embarked on a program to expand the quasar reference system behind the Large and the Small Magellanic Clouds, the Magellanic Bridge, and the Magellanic Stream that connects the Clouds with the Milky Way. Methods. Hundreds of quasar candidates were selected based on their near-infrared colors and variability properties from the ongoing public ESO VISTA Magellanic Clouds survey. A subset of 49 objects was followed up with optical spectroscopy. Results. We confirmed the quasar nature of 37 objects (34 new identifications): four are low redshift objects, three are probably stars, and the remaining three lack prominent spectral features for a secure classification. The bona fide quasars, identified from their broad emisison lines, are located as follows: 10 behind the LMC, 13 behind the SMC, and 14 behind the Bridge. The quasars span a redshift range from z similar to 0.5 to z similar to 4.1. Conclusions. Upon completion the VMC survey is expected to yield a total of similar to 1500 quasars with Y < 19.32 mag, J < 19.09 mag, and K-s < 18.04 mag. KW - surveys KW - infrared: galaxies KW - quasars: general KW - Magellanic Clouds Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201527398 SN - 1432-0746 VL - 588 PB - EDP Sciences CY - Les Ulis ER -