Super Star Clusters in Luminous Infrared Galaxies: the SUNBIRD Survey
  We present recent results from an adaptive optics imaging survey of 40
Luminous IR Galaxies (LIRGs) searching for obscured core collapse supernovae
and studying the galaxies themselves. Here, in particular, we discuss the Super
Star Clusters (SSC) populations in the LIRGs. We have constructed the first
statistically significant samples of Luminosity Functions (LF) of SSCs in the
near-IR, and find evidence that the LF slopes in LIRGs are shallower than in
more quiescent spiral galaxies. Distance and blending effects were investigated
in detail paving the way for SSC studies further out than done previously. We
have also correlated the luminosities of the brightest clusters with the star
formation rates (SFR) of the hosts. The relation is similar, though somewhat
steeper than that found in the optical and at lower SFR levels, suggesting
systematic extinction and/or age effects. We find that the characteristics of
the relation suggest an underlying physical driver rather than solely a
size-of-sample effect. In particular, a truncated luminosity/mass function
would naturally explain the small scatter we find. Finally, we are modelling
the ages and masses of our near-IR detected clusters in conjunction with HST
optical data and present early results of using SSC properties to trace the
histories of the target LIRG systems.
