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The SUNBIRD survey: characterizing the super star cluster populations of intensely star-forming galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2017

Zara Randriamanakoto
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, University of Cape Town Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa email: zara@saao.ac.za South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, 7935 Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa email: petri@saao.ac.za
Petri Väisänen
Affiliation:
South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, 7935 Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa email: petri@saao.ac.za
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Abstract

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Super star clusters (SSCs) represent the youngest and most massive form of known gravitationally bound star clusters in the Universe. They are born abundantly in environments that trigger strong and violent star formation. We investigate the properties of these massive SSCs in a sample of 42 nearby starbursts and luminous infrared galaxies. The targets form the sample of the SUperNovae and starBursts in the InfraReD (SUNBIRD) survey that were imaged using near-infrared (NIR) K-band adaptive optics mounted on the Gemini/NIRI and the VLT/NaCo instruments. Results from i) the fitted power-laws to the SSC K-band luminosity functions, ii) the NIR brightest star cluster magnitude − star formation rate (SFR) relation and iii) the star cluster age and mass distributions have shown the importance of studying SSC host galaxies with high SFR levels to determine the role of the galactic environments in the star cluster formation, evolution and disruption mechanisms.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2017 

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