Chemical evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

Investigating the chemical evolution of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) can yield information on many different aspects of the evolution of a low-mass disc galaxy and of a gravitationally and hydrodynamically interacting galaxy. Over the last two decades, the number of stars with high-quality spectra and accurate radial velocities and chemical abundances has kept increasing, going from few luminous supergiants to few thousands of fainter giant stars. We have contributed to this data increase, by carrying out a detailed chemical analysis of a large sample of Red Giant Branch (RGB) field stars located in three different LMC fields (bar, inner and outer disc), so that we can compare the chemical evolution among three different locations. Here, we present and discuss the α -elements abundances across all three fields, as one of the main indicators of the chemical evolution of a galaxy.