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Description
We present HST narrowband near-infrared imaging of Pa{alpha} and Pa{beta} emission of 48 local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) from the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey. These data allow us to measure the properties of 810 spatially resolved star-forming regions (59 nuclei and 751 extranuclear clumps) and directly compare their properties to those found in both local and high-redshift star-forming galaxies. We find that in LIRGs the star-forming clumps have radii ranging from ~90 to 900pc and star formation rates (SFRs) of ~1x10^-3^ to 10M_{sun}_/yr, with median values for extranuclear clumps of 170pc and 0.03M_{sun}_/yr. The detected star-forming clumps are young, with a median stellar age of 8.7Myr, and have a median stellar mass of 5x10^5^M_{sun}_. The SFRs span the range of those found in normal local star-forming galaxies to those found in high-redshift star-forming galaxies at z=1-3. The luminosity function of the LIRG clumps has a flatter slope than found in lower-luminosity, star-forming galaxies, indicating a relative excess of luminous star-forming clumps. In order to predict the possible range of star-forming histories and gas fractions, we compare the star-forming clumps to those measured in the MassiveFIRE high-resolution cosmological simulation. The star-forming clumps in MassiveFIRE cover the same range of SFRs and sizes found in the local LIRGs and have total gas fractions that extend from 10% to 90%. If local LIRGs are similar to these simulated galaxies, we expect that future observations with ALMA will find a large range of gas fractions, and corresponding star formation efficiencies, among the star-forming clumps in LIRGs.
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