# Updating the census of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud.

## 1 Introduction

The Magellanic Clouds contain rich star cluster systems (Hodge, 1986, 1988). The distances of the Clouds and their rather high galactic latitudes make them ideal targets to probe total populations of extended objects.

It is becoming possible to map out the overall angular distributions of star clusters, associations and HII regions, see e.g. the revisions of previously cataloged and newly identified objects in the SMC and LMC (Bica & Schmitt, 1995; Bica et al., 1999). Such distributions help one better understand star formation mechanisms and the evolution of the Magellanic System. The homogeneous surveys above were carried out on ESO/SERC R and J Sky Survey Schmidt Plates.

CCD survey results are becoming available which provide deep images in particular areas. A sector of the LMC was studied by Zaritsky et al. (1997) using UBVI filters and they identified previous and new clusters. These objects were cross-identified in detail with the previous literature in Bica et al. (1999), and were included in that catalog. Recently, Pietrzyński et al. (1998) built a catalog of SMC clusters from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) BVI database. The region covered by the OGLE Survey is $``$ 2.4 square degrees in the central parts of the SMC. They reported 238 clusters and presented a cross-identification concluding that 72 clusters were newly cataloged.

In the present paper we perform a detailed cross-identification of the objects in the OGLE catalog with those in previous works, homogenizing classifications. We indicate intrinsically new objects which in turn have implications on the star cluster census. According to Hodge (1986) the total cluster population in the SMC would be $``$ 900 if it were surveyed entirely with 4m telescope deep B plates as he did for a selection of fields. Considering incompleteness effects related to faint turnoffs he estimated a grand total of $``$ 2000. Since Hodge’s (1986) study new objects have been identified in the SMC (Bica & Schmitt, 1995; Pietrzyński et al., 1998) and it is important to update the census in view of shedding light on the SMC history of star cluster formation and dissolution. In Section 2 we discuss the cross-identification procedures and present the results. In Section 3 we compare the angular distribution of the SMC\_OGLE objects with that of all extended objects in the SMC, and discuss the impact of the new SMC\_OGLE objects on the SMC census of extended objects, in particular star clusters. In Section 4 we give the concluding remarks.

## 2 Cross-identifications

Pietrzyński et al. (1998) presented the catalog of OGLE objects in the SMC, together with I-Band CCD images of each object. We used the information therein provided, particularly the coordinates and images for the present cross-identification with the objects in Bica & Schmitt (1995, hereafter BS95).

We overplotted the 238 SMC\_OGLE objects on J2000 maps containing the objects in BS95. The objects resulting very close in position had their CCD images in Pietrzyński et al. (1998) compared to the corresponding fields in the ESO/SERC R and J Schmidt plates and Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) images, in order to check equivalences, which as rule occurred. Isolated objects turned out to be new objects.

We measured diameters and position angles of the new SMC\_OGLE objects and classified them homogeneously with BS95 and Bica et al. (1999). The object types in the latter classifications are: C for star cluster, A for emissionless association, CA and AC for objects with intermediate properties, NA for HII regions and embedded associations, NC for HII regions and embedded star clusters or high surface brightness compact HII regions, N for supernova remnants, AN and CN are respectively associations and clusters which show traces of emission.

The results for all SMC\_OGLE objects following the BS95 and Bica et al. (1999) catalog format are given in Table 1. By columns: (1) The Sky Survey field quadrant where the object is best seen. (2) Object cross-identification in the different catalogs. (3) and (4) are right ascension and declination for the epoch 2000 respectively, (5) Object Type.(6) and (7) Major and minor diameters respectively. (8) Position angle of major axis (0=N, 90=E). (9) Remarks: ‘mP’, ‘mT’ indicate member of pair, triple etc, respectively; ‘&’ indicates additional designations to column 2.

We confirmed most of the cross-identifications by Pietrzyński et al. (1998) for the 166 objects therein indicated as having previous identifications. However of the 72 SMC\_OGLE objects reported as newly found by Pietrzyński et al. (1998) we concluded that 26 had previous identification in the literature, while 46 are intrinsically new objects. These 46 objects are relatively isolated, and their typical appearance on the DSS images is a few enhanced pixels, basically unresolved, thus objects which indeed required deep CCD images to be recognized as clusters.

Two OGLE objects are duplicated, SMC\_OGLE236 = SMC\_OGLE144 and SMC\_OGLE175 = SMC\_OGLE19 (Table 1). Two single objects in the OGLE catalog, SMC\_OGLE26 and SMC\_OGLE33, were considered to be pairs in BS95 (the north and south components of NGC248 and H86-78). Adopting the latter separations the total number of objects with SMC\_OGLE designation remains 238 as in Pietrzyński et al. (1998). One case of close position between an SMC\_OGLE object (SMC\_OGLE31) and one in BS95 (B36) resulted in two different objects. The coordinates of SMC\_OGLE166 in Pietrzyński et al. (1998) did not correspond to the cluster image; the correct coordinates were kindly provided by Dr. Pietrzyński.

Table 2 shows the distribution of SMC\_OGLE objects in different catalogs considering the first chronological designation. Column 1 shows the acronym; column 2 the catalog reference; column 3 counts made in Pietrzyński et al.’s (1998) Table 2; finally in column 4 counts made in Table 1 of the present work. This comparison basically shows the distribution of the difference between the 72 initially reported as new and the 46 intrinsically new SMC\_OGLE objects. This difference arises mainly from faint clusters in the B (Brück, 1976), H86 (Hodge, 1986) and BS (BS95) catalogs.

Concerning the distributions in Table 2, note that the L61 (Lindsay, 1961) and MA (Meyssonier & Azzopardi, 1993) catalogs deal with emission stellar sources, but containing some extended objects which were included in BS95. These extended emission line objects are HII Regions and embedded star clusters. The L61 designations given to seven SMC\_OGLE objects in Table 2 of Pietrzyński et al. (1998) have SMC-N (Henize, 1956) as first chronological identification in BS95. Note also that one SMC\_OGLE object has a counterpart in the MA catalog.

### 2.1 Updated Electronic Version of the BS95 Catalog

We provide in Table 3 the first 5 lines of an updated electronic version of the revised and extended catalog of star clusters, associations and emission nebulae in the SMC/Bridge (BS95). This incorporates the present results concerning the SMC\_OGLE objects (Table 1), in particular the 46 new entries. We note that the equatorial coordinates in the present version are J2000, while in BS95 they were B1950. As pointed out by BS95 an updated catalog condensing the literature results is very useful for future surveys.

Outside the OGLE survey area we include 3 objects which were previously in the list of excluded catalog entries of BS95 (their Table 3) because they were not clearly interpreted as clusters in the ESO/SERC Schmidt Plates. These objects are: (i) B133 (Brück, 1976), which appears to be a physical system (Kontizas, 1980; Hodge, 1983); (ii) H86-95 and H86-96 indicated as a cluster pair in (Hatzidimitriou & Bhatia, 1990), which are probably clusters as seen in the second generation Digitized Sky Survey images.

The SMC/Bridge catalog now totals 1237 objects: 595 classified as clusters (C+CA+CN), 350 as associations (A+AC+AN) and 292 related to emission nebulae (N+NC+NA). Considering also the recent LMC catalog (Bica et al., 1999) the number of extended objects in the Magellanic System is now 7895.

## 3 Angular distribution and census

In the following discussions we adopt the updated BS95 catalog (Table 3), which incorporates that of the OGLE survey (Table 1). We consider as SMC objects those with right ascension less than $`2^h`$, thus excluding the Bridge region.

Figure 1 shows the angular distribution of all SMC\_OGLE objects compared to that of all extended objects in the updated BS95 catalog. The OGLE survey covers the central regions of the SMC, including the very dense bar region to the southwest and the dense extension to the northeast. Note that there are moderately dense fields around the OGLE survey area in which future CCD surveys will certainly detect new objects. Also the low density outer zones and the SMC Wing region to the southeast are important to be surveyed.

Figure 2 superimposes the angular distribution of the 46 intrinsically new SMC\_OGLE objects to that of all (238) objects in the SMC\_OGLE catalog. The new objects are more frequent in the Bar region, but they are also numerous in the northeast extension.

In Table 4 we show distributions of object types in the SMC for different spatial extractions in the updated BS95 and OGLE catalogs. In column 2 (whole SMC) there are 1122 objects distributed among (clusters : associations : nebulae) as (584 : 252 : 286). The 46 new OGLE objects and the three catalog additions outside the OGLE region (Section 2.1) increased the number of SMC objects by $``$ 5%.

We also show in Table 4 object type counts occurring in the OGLE survey area: in column 3 all objects from the updated BS95 catalog, in column 4 all objects in the revised OGLE catalog (Table 1), and finally in column 5 the intrinsically new OGLE objects. We compute 631 extended objects in the OGLE survey area as compared to 238 SMC\_OGLE objects. The large OB associations and nebular complexes explain this difference in part (mostly included in the A and NA types), but there occur many clusters (C type) in the OGLE survey area not included in the OGLE catalog. The classification C, CA to AC is one of decreasing density (Bica et al., 1999) and most of the new OGLE objects (column 5) were classified in the CA type. Finally we point out that two new OGLE objects are related to emission (NC and NA types), and $``$ 10 % of the objects in the OGLE catalog (column 4) are related to emission or have traces of emission (CN type). The emission is better seen in ESO/SERC R plates owing to H$`\alpha `$ than in the I-band CCD images.

We show in column 6 of Table 4 the counts for all objects outside the OGLE survey area, and in column 7 a crude prediction of objects that may be detected by similar CCD surveys. For each object type we computed the fraction of new OGLE objects (column 5) with respect to all objects of the same type in the area (column 3). It is expected that the average age in the outer parts be larger than in the inner parts. This effect would increase the number of new CCD objects in the outer parts since the turnoffs would be fainter, and also because crowding effects are less important. On the other hand the latter point does not favor new detections because many of these relatively old objects would have already been detected in previous photographic surveys. It is also worth noting that the older age effect towards outer regions is not isotropic, since young clusters certainly occur to the southeast (Wing and Bridge regions), which favors more previous detections. Under the assumption that such effects tend to compensate, the number of new objects in the outer region would be $``$ 42 (column 7).

A cluster census depends on the definition of cluster itself. One can include embedded clusters in HII regions and extend the density range to loose systems, as done for the LMC (Bica et al., 1999). Considering the census of SMC star clusters by including a density range (C, CA and AC types) the actual number is 633 and including predictions 672. Considering also the clusters related to emission (NC and CN types) the actual cataloged number is 719 and including predictions 759. With respect to a cluster population of 719 the new objects in the OGLE catalog imply an increase of $`7\%`$.

Hodge (1986) carried out a similar analysis by comparing the number of clusters cataloged in deep 4m telescope B plates in selected areas to that of known clusters in SMC catalogs at that time. He predicted $``$ 900 clusters if all the SMC were surveyed with similarly deep plates, and $``$ 2000 clusters if small older clusters were detectable. The plate limits in Hodge (1986) are $`B=23`$ and $`B=22`$, respectively in the outer and core SMC regions, while in the OGLE survey they are slightly less deep with $`B21.2`$, $`V21.5`$ and $`I21.0`$ (Udalski et al., 1998). The present number of cataloged clusters in Table 3 (719) is still short of $``$ 180 with respect to Hodge’s prediction for the detection level of the 4m plates (900), but it is considerably larger than that actually known at that time ($`600`$).

Hodge’s (1986) 4m telescope photographic survey is to date still the deepest one in selected areas in the SMC. Note that 53 faint cluster candidates (indicated by Hodge as probable or questionable clusters) remain in Table 3 of BS95 owing to limitations in the ESO/SERC Schmidt plates. This number excludes H86-95 and H86-96 (now in the present catalog in Table 3 \- see Section 2.1) and the duplications H86-131=128, 137=133, 161=158 and 168=165 (now also in Table 3). Such faint clusters may turn out to be crucial to infer the rate whereby intermediate age and old clusters formed in possible bursts and/or dissolved in the SMC and also LMC (Geisler et al., 1997). The brightest star in these faint clusters is mostly in the range $`18`$ B $`22`$ (Hodge, 1986) which places them as candidate intermediate/old age clusters since some bright red giant/clump stars may be present or not in such underpopulated objects. The turnoff magnitude for old clusters in the SMC is B $`2223`$ (Hodge, 1986). Assuming the faint objects as clusters the updated sample would be 772 (719 + 53), still short of $`130`$ with respect to the 4m B plate survey predictions for the whole SMC with comparable plate limits.

We conclude that deep CCD surveys like OGLE will certainly reveal new clusters in the SMC intermediate and outer parts, and deeper surveys would be necessary (especially in the central regions) to attain $``$ 900 objects. As an example of detection of very faint clusters by means of deep localized images, see the recent discovery of two clusters in crowded LMC fields with HST (Santiago et al., 1998). Finally, deep field CCD surveys would be necessary to check the existence of small old (and intermediate age) clusters in order to attain a total population of $``$ 2000. One possibility is that most or part of such older low mass objects have dissolved.

## 4 Concluding remarks

The updating of the SMC extended object catalog by including the OGLE survey and some additional results was carried out. The 46 new OGLE objects increase the number of extended objects in the SMC by $``$ 5% and star clusters themselves by $``$ 7% . If a similar CCD survey were carried out in the whole SMC area, a simple estimate suggests that $``$ 40 additional objects could be detected. The present number of star clusters (considering also those related to emission and loose systems) is 719, still short by $``$ 180 with respect to Hodge’s (1986) prediction for a global survey in the SMC attaining $`B=23`$ and $`B=22`$ in the outer parts and core respectively. Deeper field CCD surveys would be necessary to check the existence of small old (and intermediate age) clusters in order to attain a grand total population of $``$ 2000. However it is possible that most or part of such older low mass objects have dissolved.

We acknowledge the Brazilian institution CNPq for support.