2016MNRAS.458.4368M

Nearly all the star clusters with ages of ∼1-2 Gyr in both Magellanic Clouds exhibit an extended main-sequence turn-off (eMSTO) whose origin is under debate. The main scenarios suggest that the eMSTO could be either due to multiple generations of stars with different ages or to coeval stellar populations with different rotation rates. In this paper we use Hubble Space Telescope images to investigate the ∼80-Myr old cluster NGC 1755 in the LMC. We find that the MS is split with the blue and the red MS hosting about the 25 per cent and the 75 per cent of the total number of MS stars, respectively. Moreover, the MSTO of NGC 1755 is broadened in close analogy with what is observed in the ∼300-Myr-old NGC 1856 and in most intermediate-age Magellanic-Cloud clusters. We demonstrate that both the split MS and the eMSTO are not due to photometric errors, field-stars contamination, differential reddening, or non-interacting binaries. These findings make NGC 1755 the youngest cluster with an eMSTO. We compare the observed CMD with isochrones and conclude that observations are not consistent with stellar populations with difference in age, helium, or metallicity only. On the contrary, the split MS is well reproduced by two stellar populations with different rotation, although the fit between the observed eMSTO and models with different rotation is not fully satisfactory. We speculate whether all stars in NGC 1755 were born rapidly rotating, and a fraction has slowed down on a rapid time-scale, or the dichotomy in rotation rate was present already at star formation. We discuss the implication of these findings on the interpretation of eMSTO in young and intermediate-age clusters.