An infrared color-magnitude diagram for an unbiased sample of M giants in a 0.12 sq deg field of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) shows the existence of two distinct asymptotic giant branches (AGBs), one of which is 1.5 mag brighter than the other. Stars on the bright AGB are quite similar in color and luminosity to giants in LMC clusters which have ages of about 10 to the 8th yr; those on the faint AGB look like giants in clusters with ages of a few Gyr. The faint AGB is identified with the star-forming episode found by Butcher and Stryker (1981). The bright AGB is taken to be evidence for a second, discrete episode of star formation corresponding in age to the blue globular clusters in the LMC. At least for main-sequence stars near the turnoff, this recent episode has been only one-tenth as efficient at making stars as was the older episode. The rate of star formation between these two episodes appears to have been significantly lower than in either.
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Frogel et al. (1983) studied this question.