TY - JOUR A1 - Sun, Ning-Chen A1 - de Grijs, Richard A1 - Subramanian, Smitha A1 - Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. A1 - Rubele, Stefano A1 - Bekki, Kenji A1 - Ivanov, Valentin D. A1 - Piatti, Andrés E. A1 - Ripepi, Vincenzo T1 - The VMC Survey. XXII. Hierarchical star formation in the 30 Doradus-N158-N159-N160 star-forming complex JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - We study the hierarchical stellar structures in a similar to 1.5 deg(2) area covering the 30. Doradus-N158-N159-N160 starforming complex with the VISTA Survey of. Magellanic Clouds. Based on the young upper main-sequence stars, we find that the surface densities cover a wide range of values, from log(Sigma.pc(2))less than or similar to -2.0 to log(Sigma. pc(2)) greater than or similar to 0.0. Their distributions are highly non-uniform, showing groups that frequently have subgroups inside. The sizes of the stellar groups do not exhibit characteristic values, and range continuously from several parsecs to more than 100. pc; the cumulative size distribution can be well described by a single power law, with the power-law index indicating a projected fractal dimension D-2 = 1.6 +/- 0.3. We suggest that the phenomena revealed here support a scenario of hierarchical star formation. Comparisons with other star-forming regions and galaxies are also discussed. KW - galaxies: clusters: general KW - infrared: stars KW - Magellanic Clouds KW - stars: formation Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/835/2/171 SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 835 IS - 2 PB - Institute of Physics Publ. CY - Bristol ER -