As part of an ongoing effort to study the stellar nuclei of very late type, bulge-less spirals, we present results from a high-resolution spectroscopic survey of nine such nuclear star clusters, undertaken with the VLT UVES. We fit the spectra with population synthesis models and measure Lick-type indices to determine mean luminosity-weighted ages, which range from 4:1 ; 10 to 1:1 ; 10 yr and a...

We model star formation in a wide range of isolated disk galaxies composed of a dark matter halo and a disk of stars and isothermal gas, using a threedimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics code. Absorbing sink particles are used to directly measure the mass of gravitationally collapsing gas. They reach masses characteristic of stellar clusters. In this paper, we describe our galaxy models ...

We present infrared luminosities, star formation rates (SFR), colors, morphologies, locations, and AGN properties of 24μm -detected sources in photometrically detected high-redshift clusters in order to understand the impact of environment on star formation and AGN evolution in cluster galaxies. We use three newly-identified z = 1 clusters selected from the IRAC dark field; the deepest ever mid...

Young star clusters with masses similar to those of classical old globular clusters are observed not only in starbursts, mergers or otherwise disturbed galaxies, but also in normal spiral galaxies. Some young clusters with masses as high as ∼ 10 6 M ⊙ have been found in the disks of isolated spirals. Dynamical mass estimates are available for a few of these clusters and are consistent with Krou...

Galaxy interactions are known to trigger starbursts. Young massive star clusters formed in interacting galaxies and mergers may become young globular clusters. The ages of these clusters can provide clues about the timing of interaction-triggered events, and thus provide an important way to reconstruct the star formation history of merging galaxies. Numerical simulations of galaxy mergers can i...

We discuss HST FOS ultraviolet spectroscopy and NICMOS near-infrared photometry of four young super star clusters in the central region of the irregular starburst galaxy NGC 1569. The new observations coupled with previous HST WFPC2 photometry and ground-based optical spectroscopy allow us to isolate and age-date the hot and cool stellar components of these massive clusters. We analyze the two ...

In this review, we take the reader on a journey. We start by looking at the properties of galaxies in the cores of rich clusters. We have focused on the overall picture: star formation in clusters is strongly suppressed relative to field galaxies at the same redshift. We will argue that the increasing activity and blue populations of clusters with redshift results from a greater level of activi...

This thesis is devoted to star formation from galaxy-scales (≈ 10 000 pc) to sub-star cluster-scales (≈ 0.1 pc). I develop and test a new method to derive star formation histories of Galaxies from their star cluster content, in particular the most massive star clusters. This is followed by an application of this method to the Large Magellanic Cloud, where the results of this new method are conf...

We present the Fundamental Plane (FP) for 38 early-type galaxies in the two rich galaxy clusters RXJ0152.7– 1357 (z = 0.83) and RXJ1226.9+3332 (z = 0.89), reaching a limiting magnitude of MB = −19.8mag in the rest frame of the clusters. While the zero point offset of the FP for these high redshift clusters relative to our low redshift sample is consistent with passive evolution with a formation...