THE MID-INFRARED EXTINCTION LAW IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

Abstract

Based on the photometric data from the Spitzer/SAGE survey and with red giants as the extinction tracers, the mid-infrared (MIR) extinction laws in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are derived for the first time in the form of A_\lambda/A_Ks, the extinction in the four IRAC bands (i.e., [3.6], [4.5], [5.8] and [8.0]um) relative to the 2MASS Ks band at 2.16um. We obtain the near-infrared (NIR) extinction coefficient to be E(J-H)/E(H-Ks)=1.29\pm0.04 and E(J-Ks)/E(H-Ks)=1.94\pm0.04. The wavelength dependence of the MIR extinction A_\lambda/A_Ks in the LMC varies from one sightline to another. The overall mean MIR extinction is A_[3.6]/A_Ks=0.72\pm0.03, A_[4.5]/A_Ks=0.94\pm0.03, A_[5.8]/A_Ks=0.58\pm0.04, and A_[8.0]/A_Ks=0.62\pm0.05. Except for the extinction in the IRAC [4.5] band which may be contaminated by the 4.6um CO gas absorption of red giants (which are used to trace the LMC extinction), the extinction in the other three IRAC bands show a flat curve, close to the Milky Way Rv = 5.5 model extinction curve (where Rv is the optical total-to-selective extinction ratio). The possible systematic bias caused by the correlated uncertainties of Ks-\lambda and J-Ks is explored in terms of Monte-Carlo simulations. It is found that this could lead to an overestimation of A_lambda/A_Ks in the MIR.