Probing cluster formation under extreme conditions: massive star clusters in blue compact galaxies

Understand

The numerous and massive young star clusters in blue compact galaxies (BCGs) are used to investigate the properties of their hosts.

• We test whether BCGs follow claimed relations between cluster populations and their hosts, such as the the fraction of the total luminosity contributed by the clusters as function of the mean star formation rate density; the $V$ band luminosity of the brightest youngest cluster as related to the mean host star formation rate; and the cluster formation efficiency (i.e., the fraction of star formation happening in star clusters) versus the density of the SFR.
• We find that BCGs follow the trends, supporting a scenario where cluster formation and environmental properties of the host are correlated.
• They occupy, in all the diagrams, the regions of higher SFRs, as expected by the extreme nature of the starbursts operating in these systems.