We present near-IR JH spectra of the central regions of the dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 1569 using the Florida Image Slicer for Infrared Cosmology and Astrophysics (FISICA). The dust-penetrating properties and available spectral features of the near-I
R, combined with the integral field unit (IFU) capability to take spectra of a field, make FISICA an ideal tool for this work. We use the prominent [He I] (1.083mu m) and Pabeta (1.282 mu m) lines to probe the dense star forming regions as well as characterize the general star forming environment around the super star clusters (SSCs) in NGC 1569. We find [He I] coincident with CO clouds to the north and west of the SSCs, which provides the first, conclusive evidence for embedded star clusters here.
We use the previously-identified 15 infrared star-cluster counterparts to X-ray point sources in the interacting galaxies NGC 4038/4039 (the Antennae) to study the relationship between total cluster mass and X-ray binary number. This significant popu
lation of X-Ray/IR associations allows us to perform, for the first time, a statistical study of X-ray point sources and their environments. We define a quantity, eta, relating the fraction of X-ray sources per unit mass as a function of cluster mass in the Antennae. We compute cluster mass by fitting spectral evolutionary models to K_s luminosity. Considering that this method depends on cluster age, we use four different age distributions to explore the effects of cluster age on the value of eta and find it varies by less than a factor of four. We find a mean value of eta for these different distributions of eta = 1.7 x 10^-8 M_sun^-1 with sigma_eta = 1.2 x 10^-8 M_sun^-1. Performing a chi^2 test, we demonstrate eta could exhibit a positive slope, but that it depends on the assumed distribution in cluster ages. While the estimated uncertainties in eta are factors of a few, we believe this is the first estimate made of this quantity to ``order of magnitude accuracy. We also compare our findings to theoretical models of open and globular cluster evolution, incorporating the X-ray binary fraction per cluster.
