Studies of the Large Magellanic Cloud.VI. Properties of 1057 Field Stars.

Color-magnitude diagrams of field stars are presented for two relatively open areas of the Large Magellanic Cloud. In the larger area, 933 stars have been measured in a sampling which is complete to V = 17 and extends to V = 18. The color-magnitude diagram for this region shows a strong main sequence, accounting for about half the stars, and concentrations of giants and supergiants at B - V = +0.8 and +2.0. A strongly populated giant region is made up primarily of stars evolved from the main sequence fainter than the limit of the photometry, probably globular cluster-like stars. The color- magnitude array for the second region, which is the farther from the center of the Cloud, shows a weakly populated main sequence, relative to the number of giants. Luminosity functions for the two regions do not agree; the more central area has an overabundance of bright stars with respect to the van Rhijn function, while the second area's luminosity function agrees very closely with that of the solar neighborhood. A stellar association resembles in sixe, age, and shape the young star associations in our Galaxy.