2143 20160701171659.0 10.1088/0004-637X/790/1/35 DOI ASTROimport-300 Li, C. 2014 The VMC Survey. XI. Radial Stellar Population Gradients in the Galactic Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae We present a deep near-infrared color-magnitude diagram of the Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae, obtained with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) as part of the VISTA near-infrared Y, J, K s survey of the Magellanic System (VMC). The cluster stars comprising both the subgiant and red giant branches exhibit apparent, continuous variations in color-magnitude space as a function of radius. Subgiant branch stars at larger radii are systematically brighter than their counterparts closer to the cluster core; similarly, red-giant-branch stars in the cluster's periphery are bluer than their more centrally located cousins. The observations can very well be described by adopting an age spread of ~0.5 Gyr as well as radial gradients in both the cluster's helium abundance (Y) and metallicity (Z), which change gradually from (Y = 0.28, Z = 0.005) in the cluster core to (Y = 0.25, Z = 0.003) in its periphery. We conclude that the cluster's inner regions host a significant fraction of second-generation stars, which decreases with increasing radius; the stellar population in the 47 Tuc periphery is well approximated by a simple stellar population. de Grijs, R. Deng, L. Rubele, S. Wang, C. Bekki, K. Cioni, M.-R. L. Clementini, G. Emerson, J. For, B.-Q. Girardi, L. Groenewegen, M. A. T. Guandalini, R. Gullieuszik, M. Marconi, M. Piatti, A. E. Ripepi, V. van Loon, J. T. The Astrophysical Journal 790 1 2014 35 http://esoads.eso.org/abs/2014ApJ...790...35L published in REFERD