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Session 55 - New Digital Sky Surveys.
Display session, Wednesday, June 10
Atlas Ballroom,
A parametric method of estimating three-dimensional spatial density given source positions and multiband photometry is presented. The luminosity function is determined simultaneously. The parameters are evaluated by a Maximum Likelihood scheme using Markov Chain Monte Carlo. The method has the potential of combining the data from different surveys and of different nature (e.g. kinematics and photometry).
The technique is applied to the Large Magellanic Cloud. We use JHK_s photometry of 3 6^\circ \times 1^\circ fields observed by the 2MASS southern facility. Fields located at the periphery of the LMC allows us to probe the extent of the LMC halo. A range of models, including gaussian, exponential and power law halos is explored. The mass estimates are obtained from dynamical arguments combined with the inferred spatial density profile. The uncertainties of the method are statistical and can be reduced by increasing the sample. The technique is formally free of any bias, except the one introduced by the choice of the model; the bias may be eliminated by the use of non-parametric density estimator.
