Bibcode
Noël, Noelia E. D.; Aparicio, Antonio; Gallart, Carme; Hidalgo, Sebastián L.; Costa, Edgardo; Méndez, René A.
Bibliographical reference
The Magellanic System: Stars, Gas, and Galaxies, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, Volume 256, p. 269-274
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3
2009
Citations
0
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Description
We present a quantitative analysis of the star formation history (SFH)
of 12 fields in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) based on unprecedented
deep [(B-R),R] color—magnitude diagrams (CMDs) from
Noël et al. (2007). Our fields reach down to the oldest main
sequence (MS) turnoff with high photometric accuracy, which is vital for
obtaining accurate SFHs. We use the IAC-pop code (Aparicio & Hidalgo
2009) to obtain the SFH, using a single CMD generated using IAC-star
(Aparicio & Gallart 2004). We find that there are three main periods
of enhancement of star formation: a young one peaked at ~0.2-0.5
Gyr old, only present in the eastern and in the central-most fields; one
at intermediate ages, peaked at ~4-5 Gyr old in all fields; and an
old one, peaked at ~10 Gyr in all the fields but the western ones, in
which this old enhancement splits into two, peaked at ~8 Gyr old and at
~12 Gyr old. This “two-enhancement” zone seems to be a
robust feature since it is unaffected when using different stellar
evolutionary libraries, implying that stars in the SMC take a Hubble
time or more to mix. This indicates that there was a global enhancement
in ψ(t) at ~4-5 Gyr ago in the SMC. We also find that the age
of the old population is similar at all radii and at all azimuth and we
constrain the age of this oldest population to be older than ~11.5 Gyr
old. The intermediate-age population, in turn, presents variations with
both, radii and azimuth. Theoretical studies based on results from
larger spatial areas are needed to understand the origin of the young
gradient. This young component is highly affected by interactions
between Milky Way/LMC/SMC. We do not find yet a region dominated by an
old, Milky Way-like, halo at 4.5 kpc from the SMC center, indicating
either that this old stellar halo does not exist in the SMC or that its
contribution to the stellar populations, at the galactocentric distances
of our outermost field, is negligible.