Intermediate and Low-mass Young Stellar Populations in the Magellanic Clouds

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (MCs) are the nearest templates for the detailed study of star formation under metal-poor conditions. These galaxies mirror the conditions typical of galaxies during the early phases of their assembly, providing a stepping stone to understand star formation at high redshift where such processes cannot be directly observed. This PhD research will use near-IR photometry from the Vista Magellanic Cloud (VMC) Survey combined with optical photometry from the SMASH survey to constrains and characterise young stellar populations in the MCs. This project focuses on two 1.2 degree squared regions in the sky, one in each galaxy, that contain well over two million sources observed over 20 epochs. The student will perform PSF photometry on the VMC images of these regions, using tools developed by consortium members, for which at medium length work visit is envisaged. The point sources represent different stellar populations, that need to be disentangled so that the young stars can be identified and characterised. The student will use statistical methods including supervised machine learning to identify young stars, construct the Initial Mass Function across whole star formation complexes, map and quantify the true extent of these regions and the interplay with the gas and dust. This project can also make use of the VMC survey multi-epoch data to characterise massive young stellar variability across the MCs, to constrain any environmental dependence on the galactic environment. The available light curves need to be analysed to identify and characterise variables, the most extreme of which are the young stars.