A Comparison of Star-Forming Clumps and Tidal Tails in Local Mergers and
  High Redshift Galaxies
  The Clusters, Clumps, Dust, and Gas in Extreme Star-Forming Galaxies (CCDG)
survey with the Hubble Space Telescope includes multi-wavelength imaging of 13
galaxies less than 100 Mpc away spanning a range of morphologies and sizes,
from Blue Compact Dwarfs (BCDs) to luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), all with
star formation rates in excess of hundreds of solar masses per year. Images of
7 merging galaxies in the CCDG survey were artificially redshifted to compare
with galaxies at z=0.5, 1, and 2. Most redshifted tails have surface
brightnesses that would be visible at z=0.5 or 1 but not at z=2 due to
cosmological dimming. Giant star clumps are apparent in these galaxies; the 51
measured have similar sizes, masses and colors as clumps in observed high-z
systems in UDF, GEMS, GOODS, and CANDELS surveys. These results suggest that
some clumpy high-z galaxies without observable tidal features could be the
result of mergers. The local clumps also have the same star formation rate per
unit area and stellar surface density as clumps observed at intermediate and
high redshift, so they provide insight into the substructure of distant clumps.
A total of 1596 star clusters brighter than MV = -9 were identified within the
boundaries of the local clumps. The cluster magnitude distribution function is
a power law with approximately the same slope (approximately -1 for a
number-log luminosity plot) for all the galaxies both inside and outside the
clumps and independent of clump surface brightness.
