Morphologies and ages of star cluster pairs and multiplets in the Small Magellanic Cloud

An isophotal atlas of 75 star cluster pairs and multiplets in the Small Mag ellanic Cloud is presented; comprising 176 objects. They are concentrated i n the SMC main body. The isophotal contours were made from Digitized Sky Su rvey* images and showed relevant structural features possibly related to in teractions in about 25% of the sample. Previous N-body simulations indicate that such shapes could be due to tidal tails, bridges or common envelopes. The diameter ratio between the members of a pair is preferentially in the range 1 - 2, with a peak at 1, The projected separation is in the range app roximate to 3 - 22 pc with a pronounced peak at approximate to 13 pc. For 9 1 objects ii mas possible to derive ages from Colour-Magnitude Diagrams usi ng the OGLE-II photometric survey. The cluster multiplets in general occur in OB stellar associations and/or HII region complexes, This indicates a co mmon origin and suggests that multiplets coalesce into pairs or single clus ters in a short time scale. Pairs in the SMC appear to be mostly coeval and consequently captures are a rare phenomenon. We find evidence that star. c luster pairs and multiplets may have had an important role in the dynamical history of clusters presently seen as large single objects.