Kinematics and abundances of circumnuclear star-forming regions

G.F. HÄGELE, A.I. DÍAZ, M.V. CARDACI, G.L. BOSCH, V. FIRPO, D. MAST, O. DORS, E. TERLEVICH AND R. TERLEVICH

Granada, España

Workshop; Mini Workshop Estallidos with Integral Field Units - IFUS; 2009

Instituto de Astrofñisica de Andalucía

In this work we have identified two star formation sites for star formation in galaxies which differ widely in metal content. We conclude  that `massive' star formation that occurs in a high density, high metallicity environment, like that encountered in circumnuclear star-forming regions, takes place in systems that comply to the definition of super stellar clusters and that are arranged in star forming complexes. These complexes have Hα luminosities, and therefore masses of ionizing stars, that overlap at the lower end with those found in HII galaxies, which have a much lower metallicity. The fact that their ionization structure and the temperature of their ionizing radiation field are very similar, point to stellar clusters in these two environments which have the same equivalent effective temperature. This is contrary to what is expected from stellar evolution models which predict lower stellar effective temperatures in high metallicity regions.