We present a morphological analysis of the feature-rich 2MASS LMC color-magnitude diagram , identifying Galactic and LMC populations and estimating the density of LMC populations alone .
We also present the projected spatial distributions of various stellar populations .
The conditions that prevailed when 2MASS observed the LMC provided 10 \sigma limiting sensitivity for J \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \raise 1.8275 pt \hbox { $ < $ } } \lower 2.795 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } % 16.3 , H \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \raise 1.8275 pt \hbox { $ < $ } } \lower 2.795 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } % 15.3 , K _ { s } \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \raise 1.8275 pt \hbox { $ < $ } } \lower 2.795 pt \hbox { $ \sim% $ } } 14.7 .
Major populations are identified based on matching morphological features of the color-magnitude diagram with expected positions of known populations , isochrone fits , and analysis of the projected spatial distributions .

2MASS has detected a significant population of asymptotic giant branch ( AGB ) stars ( \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \raise 1.8275 pt \hbox { $ > $ } } \lower 2.795 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } 1 % 0 ^ { 4 } sources ) and obscured AGB stars ( \hbox { \hbox to 0.0 pt { \raise 1.8275 pt \hbox { $ > $ } } \lower 2.795 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } 2 % \times 10 ^ { 3 } sources ) .
The LMC populations along the first-ascent red giant branch ( RGB ) and AGB are quantified .
Comparison of the giant luminosity functions in the bar and the outer regions of the LMC shows that both luminosity functions appear consistent with each other .
The luminosity function in central ( bar ) field has well-defined drop-off near K _ { s } = 12.3 ^ { m } corresponding to the location of RGB tip ; the same feature is seen in the luminosity function of the entire LMC field .

Isochrone fits for the corresponding giant branches reveal no significant differences in metallicities and ages between central and outer regions of the LMC .
This may be evidence for strong dynamical evolution in the last several gigayears .
In particular , the observed LMC giant branch is well-fit by published tracks in the CIT/CTIO system with a distance modulus of \mu = 18.5 \pm 0.1 , reddening E _ { B - V } = 0.15 - 0.20 , metallicity Z = 0.004 ^ { +0.002 } _ { -0.001 } and age 3 - 13 Gyr .
Analysis of deep 2MASS engineering data with six times the standard exposure produces similar estimates .