Ning-Chen Sun, Richard de Grijs, Smitha Subramanian, Maria-Rosa L. Cioni, Stefano Rubele, Kenji Bekki, Valentin D. Ivanov, Andrés E. Piatti, Vincenzo Ripepi

• 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.