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Description
We present a narrowband imaging survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), designed to isolate the CII{lambda}{lambda}7231,7236 emission lines in objects as faint as m_{lambda}7400_~18. The work is motivated by the recent serendipitous discovery in the LMC of the first confirmed extragalactic [WC11] star, whose spectrum is dominated by CII emission, and the realization that the number of such objects is currently largely unconstrained. The survey, which imaged ~50deg^2^ using on-band and off-band filters, will significantly increase the total census of these rare stars. In addition, each new LMC [WC] star has a known luminosity, a quantity quite uncertain in the Galactic sample. Multiple known CII emitters were easily recovered, validating the survey design. We find 38 new CII emission candidates; spectroscopy of the complete sample will be needed to ascertain their nature. In a preliminary spectroscopic reconnaissance, we observed three candidates, finding CII emission in each. One is a new [WC11]. Another shows both the narrow CII emission lines characteristic of a [WC11], but also broad emission of CIV, OV, and HeII characteristic of a much hotter [WC4] star; we speculate that this is a binary [WC]. The third object shows weak CII emission, but the spectrum is dominated by a dense thicket of strong absorption lines, including numerous OII transitions. We conclude it is likely an unusual hot, hydrogen-poor post-AGB star, possibly in transition from [WC] to white dwarf. Even lacking a complete spectroscopic program, we can infer that late [WC] stars do not dominate the central stars of LMC planetary nebulae, and that the detected CII emitters are largely of an old population.
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