Super Star Clusters in Luminous Infrared Galaxies: the SUNBIRD Survey
: Väisänen P., Randriamanakoto Z., Escala A., Kankare E., Kniazev A., Kotilainen J.K., Mattila S., Ramphul R., Ryder S., Tekola A.
: Y. D. Mayya, D. Rosa González and E. Terlevich
: Guillermo Haro Conference
: 2014
: Young Star Clusters Near and Far: From the Milky Way to Reionization
: 185
: 189
: 5
: 978-607-8379-01-9
: http://www.inaoep.mx/~progharo/gh2013Cnf/IndCont/GH2013_vaisanen.pdf
We summarize recent results from an Adaptive Optics (AO) imaging survey of 40 Luminous IR Galaxies (LIRGs). We have constructed the first statistically significant sample of Luminosity Functions (LFs) of Super Star Clusters (SSCs) in the near-IR, and find evidence that the LF slopes in LIRGs are shallower than in more quiescent spiral galaxies. Distance and blending effects were investigated in detail paving the way for SSC studies further out than done previously. We have also correlated the luminosities of the brightest clusters with the star formation rates of the hosts and find that the characteristics of the relation suggest an underlying physical driver rather than solely a size-of-sample effect. Finally we present early results of using SSC age and mass properties to trace the histories of the target LIRG systems.