Unveiling the nature of candidate high-mass young stellar objects in the
  Magellanic Clouds with near-IR spectroscopy
  As nearby neighbors to the Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
(LMC and SMC) provide a unique opportunity to study star formation in the
context of their galactic ecosystems. Thousands of young stellar objects (YSOs)
have been characterized with large-scale Spitzer and Herschel surveys. In this
paper, we present new near-IR spectroscopy of five high-mass YSOs in the LMC
and one in the SMC. We detect multiple hydrogen recombination lines, as well as
He I 2.058 $\mu$m, H$_2$, [Fe II], and [S III] in these highly excited sources.
We estimate the internal extinction of each source and find that it is highest
for sources with the youngest evolutionary classifications. Using line ratios,
we assess the dominant excitation mechanism in the three sources where we
detect both H$_2$ 2.12 $\mu$m and [Fe II] 1.64 $\mu$m. In each case,
photoexcitation dominates over shock excitation. Finally, we detect CO bandhead
absorption in one of our LMC sources. While this feature is often associated
with evolved stars, this object is likely young with strong PAH and
fine-structure emission lines tracing an H II region detected at longer
wavelengths. Compared to high-mass YSOs in the Galaxy, our sources have higher
bolometric and line luminosities, consistent with their selection as some of
the brightest sources in the LMC and SMC.
