Gemini NIFS survey of feeding and feedback processes in nearby Active
  Galaxies: VI -- Stellar Populations
  We use Gemini Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) adaptive
optics assisted data-cubes to map the stellar population of the inner few
hundred parsecs of a sample of 18 nearby Seyfert galaxies. The near-infrared
light is dominated by the contribution of young to intermediate old stellar
populations, with light-weighted mean ages $<t>_L\ \lesssim $ 1.5\,Gyr. Hot
dust ($HD$) emission is centrally peaked (in the unresolved nucleus), but it is
also needed to reproduce the continuum beyond the nucleus in nearly half of the
sample. We have analysed the stellar population properties of the nuclear
region and their relation with more global properties of the galaxies. We find
a correlation between the X-ray luminosity and the contributions from the $HD$,
featureless continuum $FC$ and reddening $A_V$. We attribute these correlations
to the fact that all these properties are linked to the mass accretion rate to
the active galactic nuclei (AGN). We also find a correlation of the bolometric
luminosity $log(LBol_{obs})$ with the mass-weighted mean age of the stellar
population, interpreted as due a delay between the formation of new stars and
the triggering/feeding of the AGN. The gas reaching the supermassive black hole
is probably originated from mass loss from the already somewhat evolved
intermediate-age stellar population ($<t>_L \lesssim $ 1.5\,Gyr). In summary,
our results show that there is a significant fraction of young to intermediate
age stellar populations in the inner few 100\,pc of active galaxies, suggesting
that this region is facing a rejuvenation process in which the AGN, once
triggered, precludes further star formation, in the sense that it can be
associated with the lack of new star formation in the nuclear region.
