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Super Star Cluster Luminosity Functions in Interacting Luminous Infrared Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Zara Randriamanakoto  and
Petri Väisänen
Zara Randriamanakoto
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, University of Cape Town Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa email: [email protected] South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, Observatory 7935, South Africa email: [email protected]
Petri Väisänen
Affiliation:
South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, Observatory 7935, South Africa email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Young and massive super star clusters (SSCs) are found whenever very active star formation is going on, such as that in interacting Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs). From a deep NIR adaptive optics imaging survey, we present thus far the first K-band SSC luminosity functions (LFs) in these types of galaxies, and also a relation between the brightest SSC and the global SFR of the galaxy. Based on the derived LFs, one can constrain the cluster initial mass function (CIMF) and study the formation and evolution of SSCs. Our preliminary results are in disagreement with theoretical expectations which suggest that the SSC LF should be well fitted by a single power-law with an index of −2. We find power-law indexes of ~−1.5, shallower than the expected ones. Taken at face value, our results appear to support the concept that the CIMF is mass-dependent, not universal, which will be studied in more detail by mass-modelling of the SSCs. The data-set will also allow us to estimate the fraction of total star formation originating in the SSCs over a range of galaxy types.

Keywords

galaxies: interactionsgalaxies: star clustersinfrared: galaxies
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S277: Tracing the Ancestry of Galaxies (on the land of our ancestors) , December 2010 , pp. 37 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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