We present the properties of the central stars from a sample of 54 Planetary Nebulae ( PNe ) observed in the Large Magellanic Cloud ( LMC ) with the Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph ( STIS ) .
The Hubble Space Telescope ’ s spatial resolution allows us to resolve the central star from its nebula ( and line-of-sight stars ) at the distance of the LMC , eliminating the dependency on photoionization modeling in the determination of the stellar flux .
For the PNe in which the central star is detected we obtain the stellar luminosities by directly measuring the stellar fluxes through broad-band imaging and the stellar temperatures through Zanstra analysis .
From the position of the central stars in the HR diagram with respect to theoretical evolutionary tracks , we are able to determine reliable core masses for 21 central stars .
By including the central star masses determined in this paper to the 16 obtained previously using the same technique ( 73 ) , we have increased the sample of central star masses in the LMC to 37 , for which we find a non-Gaussian mass distribution .
The average central star mass for this sample is < m _ { CS } ,LMC > = 0.65 \pm 0.07 M _ { \odot } , slightly higher than the one reported in the literature for both white dwarfs and the central stars of PNe in the Galaxy .
If significant , this higher average central star mass in the LMC can be understood in terms of a metallicity dependency on mass-loss rates during the Asymptotic Giant Branch , since the LMC has on average half the metallicity compared to the Galaxy .
Finally , for the 37 objects analyzed in the LMC , we do not find any significant correlation between the mass of the central star and the morphology of the nebula .