The VMC survey III. Mass-loss rates and luminosities of LMC AGB stars
  Dust radiative transfer models are presented for all 374 AGB stars candidates
in one of the fields observed by the new VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds
(VMC). Mass-loss rates, luminosities and a classification of C- and O-rich
stars are derived by fitting the models to the spectral energy distribution
obtained by combining VMC data with existing optical, near-, and mid-infrared
photometry. This exploratory study shows that our method provides reliable
mass-loss rates, luminosities and chemical classifications for all AGB stars.
These results offer already important constraints to AGB evolutionary models.
Most of our conclusions, especially for the rarer dust-enshrouded extreme AGB
stars, are however strongly limited by the relatively small area covered by our
study. Forthcoming VMC observations will easily remove this limitation.
[abridged]
