Abstract
We report the discovery and fundamental parameters of 20 infrared open clusters projected in the inner disk and bulge area covered by the ESO public survey VISTA Variables in the Via Láctea (VVV). The most interesting candidates are as follow: The color-magnitude diagrams of VVV CL119, VVV CL143 and VVV CL150 show well defined red giant branch, some red clump and main sequence stars. They are projected at 6.8; 9.2 and 6.98 kpc respectively, are 5-10 Gyr old, intermediate metal poor, and could be classified as old open clusters. However, these objects in the inner few kpc from the Galactic center are quite unusual, because they should be rare in the inner Galaxy. Thus, these are promising candidates for new globular clusters in the galactic bulge. The open cluster candidates VVV CL124, VVV CL160 and VVV CL161 show well defined sequence of evolved and main sequence stars and are classified as old open clusters. They are projected at 5.0; 5.5 and 8.7 kpc respectively. The cluster candidates VVV CL139 and VVV CL140, are projected very close each to other, show similar radial velocities and distance modulus of 3.8 kpc. The age of CL139 is estimated around 80 Myr, while CL140 is older (1.3 Gyr). Both clusters are relatively metal rich, and are good new cluster pair candidate. And finally, two cluster candidates from our sample, namely VVV CL117 and VVV CL130 show typical color-magnitude diagrams of red supergiant clusters, but more data are necessary to confirm their nature. In summary, 15% of new cluster candidates from our sample have ages between 100 Myr and 1 Gyr and 50% are older than 1 Gyr. All clusters are very reddened, reaching A_V=28 mag in some of the cases.
