The VMC survey - XVI. Spatial variation of the cluster-formation
  activity in the innermost regions of the Large Magellanic Cloud
  We present results based on $YJK_{\rm s}$ photometry of star clusters in the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), distributed throughout the central part of the
galaxy's bar and the 30 Doradus region. We analysed the field-star
decontaminated colour--magnitude diagrams of 313 clusters to estimate their
reddening values and ages. The clusters are affected by a mean reddening of
$E(B-V) \in [0.2,0.3]$ mag, where the average internal LMC reddening amounts to
$\sim$ 0.1--0.2 mag. The region covering 30 Doradus includes clusters with
reddening values in excess of $E(B-V)$ = 0.4 mag. Our cluster sample spans the
age range $7.0 \le \log(t$ yr$^{-1}) < 9.0$, represents an increase of 30 per
cent in terms of the number of clusters with robust age estimates and comprises
a statistically complete sample in the LMC regions of interest here. The
resulting cluster frequencies suggest that the outermost regions of the LMC bar
first experienced enhanced cluster formation -- $\log(t$ yr$^{-1}) \in
[8.5,9.0]$ -- before the activity proceeded, although in a patchy manner, to
the innermost regions, for $\log(t$ yr$^{-1}) < 7.7$. Cluster frequencies in
the 30 Doradus region show that the area is dominated by very recent cluster
formation. The derived star-formation frequencies suggest that the cluster and
field-star populations do not seem to have fully evolved as fully coupled
systems during the last $\sim$ 100 Myr.
