D. H. Morgan

A Catalogue of carbon stars in the LMC

A catalogue of 7760 carbon stars in the Large Magellenic Cloud is presented. The stars were identified during a systematic survey of objective-prism plates taken with the UK 1.2 m Schmidt Telescope. The catalogue is compared with other lists of carbon stars and the distribution of the carbon stars is discussed.

Friends, Neighbours and Distant Partners: Extending or Decentring Family Relationships?

Introduction1.1 There is a longstanding recognition that grasping the meaning and significance of any specific personalrelationship requires an understanding of the whole constellation of personal ties within which people areembedded. So for example, to understand kinship it is equally necessary to understand friendship (Allan,1979). This special collection brings together research which offers insight into personal relationships ofworking-age adults beyond or outside of the conventional domestic context of a co-resident couple with orwithout children. In comparison to the wealth of research on couple and parent-child relationships, otheradult personal relationships are relatively under-researched and it is hoped that this issue will encouragefurther work. Examples of the kinds of relationships considered here include sexual relationships andpartnerships between adults outside the family-based household (Holmes, Roseneil, Reynolds), thefriendships of those not living with a partner (Budgeon), the whole constellation of personal relationships ofsingle women (Simpson) and their negotiation of the identity ‘single woman’ (MacVarish), .neighbours(Boyce, Stokoe), and relations with paid carers who enter into family contexts (Pockney).1.2 These relationships are all outside the established package of partnership, parenthood and householdalthough all represent some aspects of intimacy: bodily, emotional and privileged knowledge of the otherperson. They have some affinities and overlaps with family practices while also having their own distinctcharacteristics. The detailed exploration of these different sets of practices, using a variety ofmethodologies, may help us understand their particular logics and rationales, as well as how they aredistinct from or have continuities with more regularly understood relationships of family and kinship. Theseindividual studies can also remind us of the significance and sources of the inequalities and externalstructural factors surrounding and shaping these relationships and limiting the degrees of freedom enjoyedby individuals.1.3 Having a more complete picture of the whole constellation of personal relationships is urgently neededto inform contested interpretations of social trends in personal life. One particular line of interpretation ofsocial change is that some of the non-familial relationships discussed in this collection are eclipsingfamilial relationships in their significance. In a review of research across personal relationships at the endof the twentieth century, Jamieson (1998, 1999) noted that although friendship was claimed theoretically asthe ideal intimate relationship, the couple remained the popular choice at the centre of adult personal life.However, at the time of this collection, a growing number of researchers, including contributors to thisissue, suggest the growing importance of adult friendships (Pahl and Spencer, 2004, Spencer and Pahl2006) and believe they are seeing the focus of personal life shift from the couple, and particularly thegendered, heterosexual, co-resident, family-founding couple, to a more fluid network of intimates includingfriends, lovers and neighbours (Budgeon, this volume; Roseneil, this volume; Roseneil and Budgeon, 2004,Savage, Bagnall & Longhurst, 2005). The suggestion is that this more fluid network may be taking over,practically and emotionally, as the important relationships in people’s lives and undermining the culturaldominance of conventional family relationships as the idealized relationships to which we aspire. A numberof contributions in this volume add to a body of recent research which suggests that the boundary between‘familial’ and ‘non-familial’ relationships is increasingly blurred in everyday lives. One way of portraying thisis in terms of the elasticity and constant stretching of the boundary of what constitutes ‘family’ as theconstellations that people designated as ‘familial’ become increasingly diverse. Another way of portrayingthis is to say that the idea and ideal of family is losing ground to different understandings of how life shouldbe lived. These different ways of interpreting the same trends disagree about how fundamental a shift inactual practices has taken place.

The recent structural evolution of the SMC

We investigate the spatial distribution of stars of dierent ages towards the main body of the SMC, in an attempt to further understand the nature of the complex structure of the SMC. The old stellar population of the galaxy shows a rather regular and smooth distribution which is typical for a spheroidal body. On the contrary, the distribution of the younger stellar component is highly asymmetric and irregular giving evidence for the severe impact of the SMC during its close encounter with the LMC some 0.2 to 0.4 Gyr ago. In a series of isodensity contour maps of stars within selected ages, the recent structural evolution of the SMC is presented.

OB Stellar Associations in the Large Magellanic Cloud: Identification Method

We describe an objective method for the identification of stellar OB associations in the Large Magellanic Cloud under the assumption that they are loose, unbound stellar systems with a young OB stellar component. The method is based on star counts and spectral classification. First we detect the areas where an enhancement of star number density occurs above 3 σ of the average field density in large regions. The boundaries at 3 σ provide the size and morphology of the detected stellar concentrations. Further examination at different magnitude ranges allows us to select the systems with a bright stellar component within the detected areas. In the second step, star counts around the peak density of each detected stellar concentration provide a typical value of the projected half-mass radius, in order to calculate the central density using the appropriate mass function slope. The central density, being a crucial parameter for the bound and unbound systems, has been used as a tentative criterion for the distinction between open clusters and associations. Finally, spectral classification from objective-prism plates provides further evidence for the existence of OB-type stars in these concentrations. The faintest magnitude at which the various systems were detected is found to be independent of the presence or absence of gas and varies by up to 4 mag. An explanation for this effect is the possible existence of pre–main-sequence stars that are not visible in the optical region.

Generations and Heritage: Reflections on the Queen Mother's Funeral

In this paper we argue that the Queen Mothers funeral provided an opportunity to re-assert the ‘Royal Family’ in terms of strong cross-generational relationships rather than as a series of, often fragile, couple relationships. The ceremony of the funeral can be seen as successful in linking these inter-generational themes with other themes of national heritage and continuity.

The role of central density in the evolution and formation of LMC clusters. observational evidence

Abstract The central density ϱO in M [odot] pc−3 of a stellar system is known to be one of the principal parameters determining its dynamical history and disruption time. The central density of young populous clusters seems also to be a predominant parameter for mass segregation effects. The theoretical definition of bound or unbound stellar systems, based on their central density and the corresponding observational constraints regarding their classification (in stellar associations and open or globular clusters) are discussed. We also present our results on the spatial distribution of the star clusters in the LMC and SMC according to their central density, and the possible explanations for cluster formation in galaxies, which can be derived from these distributions.

DETECTING THE VARIATION IN THE LOWER MASS LIMIT OF STELLAR ASSOCIATIONS IN GALAXIES

Properties of OB stellar associations in the LMC have been determined from digitized UK Schmidt plates. This material provides a homogeneous data set for revealing the intrinsic differences among the various associations at different locations in the parent galaxy. Isodensity contours, from star counts, and spectral classification offer very good criteria for the exact definition of the OB association, considered as the single unit system among the most recent stellar populations of a galaxy. The isodensity contours are derived for different magnitude levels, in order to trace the limits where the image of each association is detectable. It is found that the faint limits of the LMC associations, examined so far, vary by about four magnitudes, partly depending on their spatial distribution. This finding implies differences in the mass function and, possibly, the star formation mechanism in this galaxy.