Gas Accretion in the M32 Nucleus: Past & Present
  Using adaptive optics assisted Gemini/NIFS data, I study the present and past
gas accretion in the central 3" of the M32 nucleus. From changes in the
spectral slope and CO line depths near the center, I find evidence for
unresolved dust emission resulting from BH accretion. With a luminosity of
~2e38 erg/s, this dust emission appears to be the most luminous tracer of
current BH accretion, two orders of magnitude more luminous than previously
detected X-ray emission. These observations suggest that using high resolution
infrared data to search for dust emission may be an effective way to detect
other nearby, low luminosity BHs, such as those in globular clusters. I also
examine the fossil evidence of gas accretion contained in the kinematics of the
stars in the nucleus. The higher-order moments (h3 and h4) of the line-of-sight
velocity distribution show patterns that are remarkably similar to those seen
on larger scales in elliptical galaxies and in gas-rich merger simulations. The
kinematics suggests the presence of two components in the M32 nucleus, a
dominant disk overlying a pressure supported component. I discuss possible
formation scenarios for the M32 nucleus in the context of the kinematic data as
well as previous stellar population studies. The kinematic measurements
presented here are the highest quality available for the nucleus of M32, and
may be useful for any future dynamical models of this benchmark system.
