Feeding and Feedback in nearby AGN - Comparison with the Milky Way
  center
  I discuss feeding and feedback processes observed in the inner few hundred
parsecs of nearby active galaxies using integral field spectroscopy at spatial
resolutions of a few to tens of parsecs. Signatures of feedback include
outflows from the nucleus with velocities ranging from 200 to 1000km/s, with
mass outflow rates between 0.5 and a few Msun/yr. Signatures of feeding include
the observation of gas inflows along nuclear spirals and filaments, with
velocities ranging from 50 to 100km/s and mass flow rates from 0.1 to 1
Msun/yr. These rates are 2--3 orders of magnitude larger than the mass
accretion rate to the supermassive black hole (SMBH). These inflows can thus
lead, during less than one activity cycle, to the accumulation of enough gas in
the inner few hundred parsecs, to trigger the formation of new stars, leading
to the growth of the galaxy bulge. Young to intermediate age stars have indeed
been found in circumnuclear rings around a number of Active Galactic Nuclei
(AGN). One of these rings, with ~100pc radius is observed in the Seyfert 2
galaxy NGC1068, and is associated to an off-centered molecular ring, very
similar to that observed in the Milky Way (MW). On the basis of an evolutionary
scenario, we speculate that, in the MW, molecular gas has already accumulated
within the inner ~100 pc and is already triggering the formation of new stars.
A possible increase in the star-formation rate in the region will then be
followed, tens of millions of years in the future, by the triggering of nuclear
activity in Sgr A*.
