We present the properties of 8 star-forming regions , or ‘ clumps , ’ in 3 galaxies at z \sim 1.3 from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey , which are resolved with the OSIRIS integral field spectrograph .
Within turbulent discs , \sigma \sim 90 km s ^ { -1 } , clumps are measured with average sizes of 1.5 kpc and average Jeans masses of 4.2 \times 10 ^ { 9 } M _ { \odot } , in total accounting for 20 - 30 % of the stellar mass of the discs .
These findings lend observational support to models that predict larger clumps will form as a result of higher disc velocity dispersions driven-up by cosmological gas accretion .
As a consequence of the changes in global environment , it may be predicted that star-forming regions at high redshift should not resemble star-forming regions locally .
Yet despite the increased sizes and dispersions , clumps and H II regions are found to follow tight scaling relations over the range z = 0 - 2 for H \alpha size , velocity dispersion , luminosity , and mass when comparing > 2000 H II regions locally and 30 clumps at z > 1 ( \sigma \propto r ^ { 0.42 \pm 0.03 } ,~ { } L _ { \mathrm { H } \alpha } \propto r ^ { 2.72 \pm 0.04 } % ,~ { } L _ { \mathrm { H } \alpha } \propto \sigma ^ { 4.18 \pm 0.21 } , and L _ { \mathrm { H } \alpha } \propto M _ { \mathrm { Jeans } } ^ { 1.24 \pm 0.05 } ) .
We discuss these results in the context of the existing simulations of clump formation and evolution , with an emphasis on the processes that drive-up the turbulent motions in the interstellar medium .
Our results indicate that while the turbulence of discs may have important implications for the size and luminosity of regions which form within them , the same processes govern their formation from high redshift to the current epoch .