IC 342 is a nearby , late-type spiral galaxy with a young nuclear star cluster surrounded by several giant molecular clouds .
The IC 342 nuclear region is similar to the Milky Way and therefore provides an interesting comparison .
We explore star formation in the nucleus using radio recombination line ( RRL ) and continuum emission at 5 , 6.7 , 33 , and 35 { GHz } with the JVLA .
These radio tracers are largely unaffected by dust and therefore sensitive to all of the thermal emission from the ionized gas produced by early-type stars .
We resolve two components in the RRL and continuum emission within the nuclear region that lie east and west of the central star cluster .
These components are associated both spatially and kinematically with two giant molecular clouds .
We model these regions in two ways : a simple model consisting of uniform gas radiating in spontaneous emission , or as a collection of many compact H ii regions in non-LTE .
The multiple H ii region model provides a better fit to the data and predicts many dense ( n _ { e } \sim 10 ^ { 4 } -10 ^ { 5 } { cm ^ { -3 } } ) , compact ( \lesssim 0.1 { pc } ) H ii regions .
For the whole nuclear region as defined by RRL emission , we estimate a hydrogen ionizing rate of N _ { L } \sim 2 \times 10 ^ { 52 } { s } ^ { -1 } , corresponding to equivalent \sim 2000 O6 stars and a star formation rate of \sim 0.15 M _ { \odot } { yr } ^ { -1 } .
We detect radio continuum emission west of the southern molecular mini spiral arm , consistent with trailing spiral arms .