Gemini NIFS survey of feeding and feedback processes in nearby Active
  Galaxies: I - Stellar kinematics
  We use the Gemini Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) to map the
stellar kinematics of the inner few hundred parsecs of a sample of 16 nearby
Seyfert galaxies, at a spatial resolution of tens of parsecs and spectral
resolution of 40 km/s. We find that the line-of-sight (LOS) velocity fields for
most galaxies are well reproduced by rotating disk models. The kinematic
position angle (PA) derived for the LOS velocity field is consistent with the
large scale photometric PA. The residual velocities are correlated with the
hard X-ray luminosity, suggesting that more luminous AGN have a larger impact
in the surrounding stellar dynamics. The central velocity dispersion values are
usually higher than the rotation velocity amplitude, what we attribute to the
strong contribution of bulge kinematics in these inner regions. For 50% of the
galaxies, we find an inverse correlation between the velocities and the $h_3$
Gauss-Hermitte moment, implying red wings in the blueshifted side and blue
wings in the redshifted side of the velocity field, attributed to the movement
of the bulge stars lagging the rotation. Two of the 16 galaxies (NGC 5899 and
Mrk 1066) show an S-shape zero velocity line, attributed to the gravitational
potential of a nuclear bar. Velocity dispersion maps show rings of low-$\sigma$
values (50-80 km/s) for 4 objects and "patches" of low-sigma for 6 galaxies at
150-250 pc from the nucleus, attributed to young/ intermediate age stellar
populations.
