We present an analysis of the spatial distribution of various stellar populations within the Large Magellanic Cloud .
We combine mid-infrared selected young stellar objects , optically selected samples with mean ages between \sim 9 and \sim 1000 Myr , and existing stellar cluster catalogues to investigate how stellar structures form and evolve within the LMC .
For the analysis we use Fractured Minimum Spanning Trees , the statistical Q parameter , and the two-point correlation function .
Restricting our analysis to young massive ( OB ) stars we confirm our results obtained for M33 , namely that the luminosity function of the groups is well described by a power-law with index -2 , and that there is no characteristic length-scale of star-forming regions .
We find that stars in the LMC are born with a large amount of substructure , consistent with a 2D fractal distribution with dimension \sim 1.8 and evolve towards a uniform distribution on a timescale of \sim 175 Myr .
This is comparable to the crossing time of the galaxy and we suggest that stellar structure , regardless of spatial scale , will be eliminated in a crossing time .
This may explain the smooth distribution of stars in massive/dense young clusters in the Galaxy , while other , less massive , clusters still display large amounts of structure at similar ages .
By comparing the stellar and star cluster distributions and evolving timescales , we show that infant mortality of clusters ( or ’ popping clusters ’ ) have a negligible influence on galactic structure .
Finally , we quantify the influence of the elongation , differential extinction , and contamination of a population on the measured Q value .