Most luminous LMC sources at 8{mu}m

To ascertain the nature of the brightest compact mid-infrared (mid-IR) sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), we have applied an updated version of Buchanan et al.'s (2006AJ....132.1890B) Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)-Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) color classification system, which is based on the results of Spitzer Space Telescope spectroscopy, to a mid-IR (8um) flux-limited sample of 250 LMC objects for which 2MASS and MSX photometry is available.

The resulting 2MASS-MSX ("JHK8") color-based classifications of these sources, which constitute the most mid-IR-luminous objects in the LMC, were augmented, cross-checked, and corrected where necessary via a variety of independent means, such that only 46 sources retain tentative classifications and only 10 sources cannot be classified at all. The sample is found to consist primarily of carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars (35%), red supergiants (RSGs) (18%), and compact HII regions (32%), with additional, small populations of oxygen-rich AGB stars (~5%), dusty, early-type emission-line stars (~3%), and foreground, O-rich AGB stars in the Milky Way (~3%).