Friday, 12 December, 1997 at 2:30pm

Matthew D. Lehnert, Sterrewacht Leiden

"The Nature of Starburst Galaxies"

ABSTRACT: "Utilizing optical observations of a large sample of IR-selected starburst galaxies having optical images and long-slit spectra and some soft X-ray data, we discuss a number of fascinating and important properties of starburst galaxies. I will first discuss the evidence that starburst galaxies are able to drive galactic scale winds and describe the observational properties of these "superwinds". Then I explore the inter-relationships between the properties of starbursts, and relate these properties to those of the "host" galaxy. Within this context, I show also that starbursts seem to obey a limiting IR surface brightness of about 10^11 solar luminosities per square kpc, corresponding to a maximum star-formation rate of about 20--45 solar mass per year per square kpc for a normal initial mass function and discuss the possible mechanisms for providing this upper-limit to the star-formation rate per unit area."