Ages and Luminosities of Young SMC/LMC Star Clusters and the recent Star
  Formation History of the Clouds
  In this paper we discuss the age and spatial distribution of young
(age$<$1Gyr) SMC and LMC clusters using data from the Magellanic Cloud
Photometric Surveys. Luminosities are calculated for all age-dated clusters.
Ages of 324 and 1193 populous star clusters in the Small and the Large
Magellanic Cloud have been determined fitting Padova and Geneva isochrone
models to their resolved color-magnitude diagrams. The clusters cover an age
range between 10Myr and 1Gyr in each galaxy. For the SMC a constant distance
modulus of $(m-M)_0$ = 18.90 and a metallicity of Z = 0.004 were adopted. For
the LMC, we used a constant distance modulus of $(m-M)_0$ = 18.50 and a
metallicity of Z = 0.008. For both galaxies, we used a variable color excess to
derive the cluster ages. We find two periods of enhanced cluster formation in
both galaxies at 160Myr and 630Myr (SMC) and at 125Myr and 800Myr (LMC). We
present the spatially resolved recent star formation history of both Clouds
based on young star clusters. The first peak may have been triggered by a close
encounter between the SMC and the LMC. In both galaxies the youngest clusters
reside in the supergiant shells, giant shells, the inter-shell regions, and
toward regions with a high H$\alpha$ content, suggesting that their formation
is related to expansion and shell-shell interaction. Most of the clusters are
older than the dynamical age of the supergiant shells. No evidence for cluster
dissolution was found. Computed V band luminosities show a trend for fainter
magnitudes with increasing age as well as a trend for brighter magnitudes with
increasing apparent cluster radii.
