Deep colour-magnitude diagrams of LMC field stars imaged with HST

We present deep photometry (V less than or similar to 26) in V and I bands obtained with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Spa ce Telescope for 7 fields similar to5 degrees away from the Large Magellani c Cloud centre. The fields contain, typically, 2000 stars each. Isochrones were fitted to the colour-magnitude diagrams in order to identify different star populations in these fields. An old population (tau > 10Gyr) has been found in all fields. Some events of enhanced star formation, with ages bet ween 2 and 4 Gyr, were identified in the fields localized in the north to n orth-west regions. Luminosity functions of low-mass stars were also obtaine d for all fields. Kolmogorov Smirnov test results suggest differences small er than 30 per cent in the mixture of stellar populations contributing to t he fields. Finally, density profiles were derived for old and intermediate- age stars. The former shows a slightly steeper decline than the latter.