Integrated UBV photometry of 624 star clusters and associations in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

We present a catalogof integrated UBV photometry of 504 star clusters and 120 stellar associations in the LMC, part ofthem still embedded in emitting gas. We study age groups in terms of equivalent SWB types derived from the (U-B) X (B-V) diagram. The size ofthe spatia1 distributions increases steadily with age (SWB types), whereas a difference of axial ratio exists between the groups younger than 30 Myr and those older, which implies a nearly face-on orientation for the former and a tilt of ~45º for the latter groups. Asymmetries are present in the spâtial distributions, which, together with the noncoincidence ofthe centroids for different age groups, suggest that the LMC disk was severely perturbed in the past.