The VMC Survey -- XXXIV. Morphology of Stellar Populations in the
  Magellanic Clouds
  The Magellanic Clouds are nearby dwarf irregular galaxies whose morphologies
show different properties when traced by different stellar populations, making
them an important laboratory for studying galaxy morphologies. We study the
morphology of the Magellanic Clouds using data from the VISTA survey of the
Magellanic Clouds system (VMC). We used about $10$ and $2.5$ million sources
across an area of $\sim105$ deg$^2$ and $\sim42$ deg$^2$ towards the Large and
Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC), respectively. We estimated median ages of
stellar populations occupying different regions of the near-infrared
($J-K_\mathrm{s}, K_\mathrm{s}$) colour-magnitude diagram. Morphological maps
were produced and detailed features in the central regions were characterised
for the first time with bins corresponding to a spatial resolution of $0.13$
kpc (LMC) and $0.16$ kpc (SMC). In the LMC, we find that main sequence stars
show coherent structures that grow with age and trace the multiple spiral arms
of the galaxy, star forming regions become dimmer as we progress in age, while
supergiant stars are centrally concentrated. Intermediate-age stars, despite
tracing a regular and symmetrical morphology, show central clumps and hints of
spiral arms. In the SMC, young main sequence stars depict a broken bar.
Intermediate-age populations show signatures of elongation towards the
Magellanic Bridge that can be attributed to the LMC-SMC interaction $\sim200$
Myr ago. They also show irregular central features suggesting that the inner
SMC has also been influenced by tidal interactions.
