The initial conditions of young globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud

N-body simulations are used to model the early evolution of globular clusters. These simulations include residual gas which was not turned into stars, which is expelled from the globular cluster by the actions of massive (> 8 M⊙) stars. The results of these simulations are compared with observations of eight LMC globular clusters less than 100 Myr old. These observations are used to constrain the initial conditions that may have produced these clusters. It is found that the observations can be accounted for in a model where the globular clusters form from proto-cluster clouds similar to Plummer models with length-scales in the range 1 < Rs/pc < 3 where the star formation efficiency varies between 25 and 60 per cent. Using these derived initial conditions the survivability of these clusters in both the Galaxy and the LMC is assessed. If the slope of the initial mass function is around α = 2.35 then two or three of these clusters may be able to survive for a Hubble time even in the Galactic halo. In this case these clusters may represent young versions of the Galactic globular cluster population which was severely depleted by the destruction of many of its original members. In the case where α = 1.50, however, none of these clusters would be expected to survive for more than a few Gyr at most, even within the LMC.