Large-scale diffuse X-ray emission from the Large Magellanic Cloud

X-ray mosaics of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) taken with the ROSAT Posi tion Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) have revealed extensive diffuse X-ray emission, indicative of hot greater than or equal to 10(6) K gas asso ciated with this irregular galaxy on scales from similar to 10 to greater t han or equal to 1000 pc. We have selected regions of large-scale (d greater than or equal to 600 pc) diffuse X-ray emission, such as supergiant shells , the LMC Spur, and the LMC Bar, and examined the physical conditions of th e hot gas associated with them. We find that for these objects the plasma t emperatures range from kT similar to 0.15 to 0.60 keV and the derived elect ron densities range from n(e) similar to 0.005 to 0.03 cm(-3). Furthermore, we have examined the fraction of diffuse X-ray emission from the LMC and c ompared it to the total X-ray emission. We find that discrete sources such as X-ray binaries and supernova remnants account for similar to 41% and sim ilar to 21% of the X-ray emission from the LMC, respectively. In contrast, diffuse X-ray emission from the field and from supergiant shells account fo r similar to 30% and similar to6% of the total X-ray emission, respectively .