Structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud from the Near Infrared
  magnitudes of Red Clump stars
  The structural parameters, like the inclination, i and the position angle of
the line of nodes (PA_lon) of the disk of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) are
estimated using the JH photometric data of red clump stars from the Infrared
Survey Facility - Magellanic Cloud Point Source Catalog (IRSF-MCPSC). The
observed LMC region is divided into several sub-regions and stars in each
region are cross identified with the optically identified red clump stars to
obtain the near infrared magnitudes. The peak values of H magnitude and (J-H)
colour of the observed red clump distribution are obtained by fitting a profile
to the distributions and also by taking the average value of magnitude and
colour of the red clump stars in the bin with largest number. Then the
dereddened peak H0 magnitude of the red clump stars in each sub-region is
obtained. The RA, Dec and relative distance from the center of each sub-region
are converted into x, y & z Cartesian coordinates. A weighted least square
plane fitting method is applied to this x,y,z data to estimate the structural
parameters of the LMC disk. A reddening map based on (J-H) colour of the RC
stars is presented. When the peaks of the red clump distribution were
identified by averaging, an inclination of 25.7 +/- 1.6 and PA_lon = 141.5 +/-
4.5 were obtained. We estimate a distance modulus of 18.47 +/- 0.1 mag to the
LMC. Extra-planar features which are in front as well as behind the fitted
plane are identified which match with the optically identified extra-planar
features. The bar of the LMC is found to be part of the disk within 500 pc. The
estimates of the structural parameters are found to be independent of the
photometric bands used for the analysis. We find that the inner disk, within
3.0, is less inclined and has larger value of PA_lon when compared to the outer
disk.
