@article{MorettiClementiniMarconietal.2016, author = {Moretti, M. I. and Clementini, Gisella and Marconi, V. Ripepi M. and Rubele, S. and Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. and Muraveva, T. and Groenewegen, M. A. T. and Cross, N. J. G. and Ivanov, V. D. and Piatti, A. E. and de Grijs, Richard}, title = {The VMC survey - XX. Identification of new Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {459}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stw716}, pages = {1687 -- 1697}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We present K-s-band light curves for 299 Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) of which 288 are new discoveries that we have identified using multi-epoch near-infrared photometry obtained by the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC). The new Cepheids have periods in the range from 0.34 to 9.1 d and cover the magnitude interval 12.9 <= currency sign < K-s > <= currency sign 17.6 mag. Our method was developed using variable stars previously identified by the optical microlensing survey OGLE. We focus on searching new Cepheids in external regions of the SMC for which complete VMC K-s-band observations are available and no comprehensive identification of different types of variable stars from other surveys exists yet.}, language = {en} } @article{RipepiMarconiMorettietal.2016, author = {Ripepi, Vincenzo and Marconi, M. and Moretti, M. I. and Clementini, Gisella and Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. and de Grijs, Richard and Emerson, J. P. and Groenewegen, M. A. T. and Ivanov, V. D. and Piatti, A. E.}, title = {THE VMC SURVEY. XIX. CLASSICAL CEPHEIDS IN THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Supplement series}, volume = {224}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Supplement series}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0067-0049}, doi = {10.3847/0067-0049/224/2/21}, pages = {199 -- 229}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The "VISTA near-infrared YJK(s) survey of the Magellanic Clouds System" (VMC) is collecting deep K-s-band time-series photometry of pulsating variable stars hosted by the two Magellanic Clouds and their connecting Bridge. In this paper, we present Y, J, K-s light curves for a sample of 4172 Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) Classical Cepheids (CCs). These data, complemented with literature V values, allowed us to construct a variety of period-luminosity (PL), period-luminosity-color (PLC), and period-Wesenheit (PW) relationships, which are valid for Fundamental (F), First Overtone (FO), and Second Overtone (SO) pulsators. The relations involving the V, J, K-s bands are in agreement with their counterparts in the literature. As for the Y band, to our knowledge, we present the first CC PL, PW, and PLC relations ever derived using this filter. We also present the first near-infrared PL, PW, and PLC relations for SO pulsators to date. We used PW(V, K-s) to estimate the relative SMC-LMC distance and, in turn, the absolute distance to the SMC. For the former quantity, we find a value of Delta mu = 0.55. +/- 0.04 mag, which is in rather good agreement with other evaluations based on CCs, but significantly larger than the results obtained from older population II distance indicators. This discrepancy might be due to the different geometric distributions of young and old tracers in both Clouds. As for the absolute distance to the SMC, our best estimates are mu(SMC) = 19.01 +/- 0.05 mag and mu(SMC) = 19.04 +/- 0.06 mag, based on two distance measurements to the LMC which rely on accurate CC and eclipsing Cepheid binary data, respectively.}, language = {en} } @article{SundeGrijsSubramanianetal.2017, author = {Sun, Ning-Chen and de Grijs, Richard and Subramanian, Smitha and Bekki, Kenji and Bell, Cameron P. M. and Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. and Ivanov, Valentin D. and Marconi, Marcella and Oliveira, Joana M. and Piatti, Andres E. and Ripepi, Vincenzo and Rubele, Stefano and Tatton, Ben L. and van Loon, Jacco Th.}, title = {The VMC Survey. XXII. Hierarchical Star Formation in the 30 Doradus-N158-N159-N160 Star-forming Complex}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {849}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aa911e}, pages = {16}, year = {2017}, abstract = {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.}, language = {en} } @article{MillerCionideGrijsetal.2022, author = {Miller, Amy E. and Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. and de Grijs, Richard and Sun, Ning-Chen and Bell, Cameron P. M. and Choudhury, Samyaday and Ivanov, Valentin D. and Marconi, Marcella and Oliveira, Joana M. and Petr-Gotzens, Monika and Ripepi, Vincenzo and van Loon, Jacco Th.}, title = {The VMC survey - XLVII. Turbulence-controlled hierarchical star formation in the large magellanic cloud}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {512}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stac508}, pages = {1196 -- 1213}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We perform a statistical clustering analysis of upper main-sequence stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using data from the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy survey of the Magellanic Clouds. We map over 2500 young stellar structures at 15 significance levels across similar to 120 square degrees centred on the LMC. The structures have sizes ranging from a few parsecs to over 1 kpc. We find that the young structures follow power-law size and mass distributions. From the perimeter-area relation, we derive a perimeter-area dimension of 1.44 +/- 0.20. From the mass-size relation and the size distribution, we derive two-dimensional fractal dimensions of 1.50 +/- 0.10 and 1.61 +/- 0.20, respectively. We find that the surface density distribution is well represented by a lognormal distribution. We apply the Larson relation to estimate the velocity dispersions and crossing times of these structures. Our results indicate that the fractal nature of the young stellar structures has been inherited from the gas clouds from which they form and that this architecture is generated by supersonic turbulence. Our results also suggest that star formation in the LMC is scale-free from 10 to 700 pc.}, language = {en} } @article{PiattiIvanovRubeleetal.2016, author = {Piatti, Andres E. and Ivanov, Valentin D. and Rubele, Stefano and Marconi, Marcella and Ripepi, Vincenzo and Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. and Oliveira, Joana M. and Bekki, Kenji}, title = {The VMC Survey - XXI. New star cluster candidates discovered from infrared photometry in the Small Magellanic Cloud}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {460}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stw1000}, pages = {383 -- 395}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @article{CioniBekkiGirardietal.2016, author = {Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. and Bekki, Kenji and Girardi, Leo and de Grijs, Richard and Irwin, Mike J. and Ivanov, Valentin D. and Marconi, Marcella and Oliveira, Joana M. and Piatti, Andres E. and Ripepi, Vincenzo and van Loon, Jacco Th.}, title = {XVII. Proper motions of the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Milky Way globular cluster 47 Tucanae}, series = {Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics}, volume = {586}, journal = {Physical review : E, Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {1432-0746}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201527004}, pages = {67 -- 75}, year = {2016}, abstract = {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\&\#8722;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 (\&\#956;\&\#945;cos(\&\#948;), \&\#956;\&\#948;) = (+7.26 ± 0.03, \&\#8722;1.25 ± 0.03) mas yr-1. This measurement refers to about 35 000 sources distributed between 10\&\#8242; and 60\&\#8242; from the cluster centre. For the SMC we obtain (\&\#956;\&\#945;cos(\&\#948;), \&\#956;\&\#948;) = (+1.16 ± 0.07, \&\#8722;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 = \&\#8722;44.9) of this VISTA tile is (\&\#956;\&\#945;cos(\&\#948;), \&\#956;\&\#948;) = (+10.22 ± 0.14, \&\#8722;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.}, language = {en} }