Local Lyman Break Galaxy Analogs: The Impact of Massive Star-forming
  Clumps on the Interstellar Medium and the Global Structure of Young, Forming
  Galaxies
  We present HST UV/optical imaging, Spitzer mid-IR photometry, and optical
spectroscopy of a sample of 30 low-redshift (z=0.1-0.3) galaxies chosen from
SDSS/GALEX to be accurate local analogs of the high-z Lyman Break Galaxies. The
Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs) are similar in mass, metallicity, dust, SFR, size
and gas velocity dispersion, thus enabling a detailed investigation of
processes that are important at high-z. The optical emission line properties of
LBAs are also similar to those of LBGs, indicating comparable conditions in
their ISM. In the UV, LBAs are characterized by complexes of massive
star-forming "clumps", while in the optical they most often show evidence for
(post-)mergers/interactions. In 6 cases, we find an extremely massive (>10^9
Msun) compact (R~100 pc) dominant central object (DCO). The DCOs are
preferentially found in LBAs with the highest mid-IR luminosities and
correspondingly high SFRs (15-100 Msun/yr). We show that the massive SF clumps
(including the DCOs) have masses much larger than the nuclear super star
clusters seen in normal late type galaxies. However, the DCOs have masses,
sizes, and densities similar to the excess-light/central-cusps seen in typical
elliptical galaxies with masses similar to the LBA galaxies. We suggest that
the DCOs form in present-day examples of the dissipative mergers at high
redshift that are believed to have produced the central-cusps in local
ellipticals. More generally, the properties of the LBAs are consistent with the
idea that instabilities in a gas-rich disk lead to very massive star-forming
clumps that eventually coalesce to form a spheroid. We speculate that the DCOs
are too young at present to be growing a supermassive black hole because they
are still in a supernova-dominated outflow phase.
