Gas inflows towards the nucleus of the active galaxy NGC7213
  We present two-dimensional stellar and gaseous kinematics of the inner
0.8x1.1kpc^2 of the LINER/Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC7213, from optical spectra
obtained with the GMOS integral field spectrograph on the Gemini South
telescope at a spatial resolution of 60pc. The stellar kinematics shows an
average velocity dispersion of 177km/s, circular rotation with a projected
velocity amplitude of 50km/s and a kinematic major axis at a position angle of
-4degrees (west of north). From the average velocity dispersion we estimate a
black hole mass of M_BH=8_{-6}^{+16}x10^7 M_sun. The gas kinematics is
dominated by non-circular motions, mainly along two spiral arms extending from
the nucleus out to 4arcsec (280pc) to the NW and SE, that are cospatial with a
nuclear dusty spiral seen in a structure map of the nuclear region of the
galaxy. The projected gas velocities along the spiral arms show blueshifts in
the far side and redshifts in the near side, with values of up to 200km/s. This
kinematics can be interpreted as gas inflows towards the nucleus along the
spiral arms if the gas is in the plane of the galaxy. We estimate the mass
inflow rate using two different methods. The first is based of the observed
velocities and geometry of the flow, and gives a mass inflow rate in the
ionised gas of 7x10^-2 M_sun/yr. In the second method, we calculate the net
ionised gas mass flow rate through concentric circles of decreasing radii
around the nucleus resulting in mass inflow rates ranging from 0.4 M_sun/yr at
300pc down to 0.2 M_sun/yr at 100pc from the nucleus. These rates are larger
than necessary to power the active nucleus.
