2D mapping of young stars in the inner 180 pc of NGC 1068: correlation
  with molecular gas ring and stellar kinematics
  We report the first two-dimensional mapping of the stellar population and
non-stellar continua within the inner 180 pc (radius) of NGC 1068 at a spatial
resolution of 8 pc, using integral field spectroscopy in the near-infrared. We
have applied the technique of spectral synthesis to data obtained with the
instrument NIFS and the adaptive optics module ALTAIR at the Gemini North
Telescope. Two episodes of recent star formation are found to dominate the
stellar population contribution: the first occurred 300 Myr ago, extending over
most of the nuclear region; the second occurred just 30 Myr ago, in a ring-like
structure at ~100 pc from the nucleus, where it is coincident with an expanding
ring of H2 emission. Inside the ring, where a decrease in the stellar velocity
dispersion is observed, the stellar population is dominated by the 300 Myr age
component. In the inner 35 pc, the oldest age component (age > 2Gyr) dominates
the mass, while the flux is dominated by black-body components with
temperatures in the range 700 < T < 800 K which we attribute to the dusty
torus. We also find some contribution from black-body and power-law components
beyond the nucleus which we attribute to dust emission and scattered light.
