Star formation in starburst galaxies from near-IR spectroscopy and evolutionary population synthesis

We show that the combined study of the near-IR Stellar Energy Distribution (SED) and emission lines in IR luminous starburst galaxies, using evolutionary population synthesis, gives constraints both on the star formation (SF) parameters and on the relative spatial distribution of the components (burst stars, evolved stars, H II regions, dust). We also note that the He I λ 2.06/Br _γ ratio, used to constrain the stellar upper mass limit, is sensitive to a variety of other factors that should be accounted for.