Effects of ram pressure on the gas distribution and star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

We use high resolution N-body/SPH simulations to study the hydrodynamical interaction between the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the hot halo of the Milky Way. We investigate whether ram-pressure acting on the satellite_s14s ISM can explain the peculiarities observed in the HI distribution and the location of the recent star formation activity. Due to the present nearly edge-on orientation of the disk with respect to the orbital motion, compression at the leading edge can explain the high density region observed in HI at the south-east border. In the case of a face-on disk (according to Mastropietro et al. 2008 the LMC was moving almost face-on before the last perigalactic passage), ram-pressure directed perpendicularly to the disk produces a clumpy structure characterized by voids and high density filaments that resemble those observed by the Parkes HI survey. As a consequence of the very recent edge-on motion, the H-alpha emission is mainly concentrated on the eastern side where 30 Doradus and most of the supergiant shells are located, although some H-alpha complexes form a patchy distribution on the entire disk. In this scenario only the youngest stellar complexes show a progression in age along the leading border of the disk.