Radio detection of nebulae around four luminous blue variable stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The nebulae associated with four luminous blue variables (LBVs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) have been observed at 5.5 and 9 GHz using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, and radio emission has been detected for first time in sources R127, R143, S61 and S119. The radio maps of the nebulae have an angular resolution of ∼1.5 arcsec and a sensitivity of 1.5–3.0 × 10^(−2) mJy beam^(−1) and show a very similar morphology to that observed in Hα. This similarity permits us to assume that the Hα emission is not affected by strong intrinsic extinction due to dust within the nebulae. We estimate the masses of ionized gas in the LBV nebulae and find values consistent with those measured in Galactic LBVs