Probing the LMC age gap at intermediate cluster masses
  The LMC has a rich star cluster system spanning a wide range of ages and
masses. One striking feature of the LMC cluster system is the existence of an
age gap between 3-10 Gyrs. But this feature is not as clearly seen among field
stars. Three LMC fields containing relatively poor and sparse clusters whose
integrated colours are consistent with those of intermediate age simple stellar
populations have been imaged in BVI with the Optical Imager (SOI) at the
Southern Telescope for Astrophysical Research (SOAR). A total of 6 clusters, 5
of them with estimated initial masses M < 10^4M_sun, were studied in these
fields. Photometry was performed and Colour-Magnitude Diagrams (CMD) were built
using standard point spread function fitting methods. The faintest stars
measured reach V ~ 23. The CMD was cleaned from field contamination by making
use of the three-dimensional colour and magnitude space available in order to
select stars in excess relative to the field. A statistical CMD comparison
method was developed for this purpose. The subtraction method has proven to be
successful, yielding cleaned CMDs consistent with a simple stellar population.
The intermediate age candidates were found to be the oldest in our sample, with
ages between 1-2 Gyrs. The remaining clusters found in the SOAR/SOI have ages
ranging from 100 to 200 Myrs. Our analysis has conclusively shown that none of
the relatively low-mass clusters studied by us belongs to the LMC age-gap.
