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Description
We use the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope to study the rich population of young massive star clusters in the main body of NGC 3256, a merging pair of galaxies with a high star formation rate (SFR) and SFR per unit area ({Sigma}_SFR_). These clusters have luminosity and mass functions that follow power laws, dN/dL{propto}L^{alpha}^ with {alpha}=-2.23+/-0.07, and dN/dM{propto}M^{beta}^ with {beta}=-1.86+/-0.34 for {tau}<10Myr clusters, similar to those found in more quiescent galaxies. The age distribution can be described by dN/d{tau}{propto}{tau}^{gamma}^, with {gamma}~-0.67+/-0.08 for clusters younger than about a few hundred million years, with no obvious dependence on cluster mass. This is consistent with a picture where ~80% of the clusters are disrupted each decade in time. We investigate the claim that galaxies with high {Sigma}_SFR_ form clusters more efficiently than quiescent systems by determining the fraction of stars in bound clusters ({Gamma}) and the CMF/SFR statistic (CMF is the cluster mass function) for NGC 3256 and comparing the results with those for other galaxies. We find that the CMF/SFR statistic for NGC 3256 agrees well with that found for galaxies with {Sigma}_SFR_ and SFRs that are lower by 1-3 orders of magnitude, but that estimates for {Gamma} are only robust when the same sets of assumptions are applied. Currently, {Gamma} values available in the literature have used different sets of assumptions, making it more difficult to compare the results between galaxies.
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