LMC HII region luminosities versus observed ionising stars

Abstract

We use the stellar census of OB associations in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to predict the Hα luminosities of the host HII regions, based on results from stellar atmosphere models. These values are compared to the observed HII region luminosities, yielding an estimate for the mean fraction of H-ionising photons that escape the local nebulae in this sample. We formally estimate that, overall, 0-51% of the ionising radiation escapes the local HII regions and is available to ionise the warm, ionised medium in the LMC. We find both nebulae that appear to be density-bounded and ones that appear to be radiation-bounded.