9315646 Lester This grant will provide a two-year program to develop and apply a new method for measuring kinematics of galactic nuclei. This information will lead to robust mass estimates, and allow critical investigation of the star forming history of heavily obscured nuclear regions. It will also provide insight into the dynamics of collisions and mergers and their role in starbursts. Newly available instrumentation at the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii allows a large number of interesting galactic nuclei to be observed. Since the Kinematics of stars, instead of gas, is measured, the derived gravitational potential is insensitive to dissipative forces and large scale flows. The long wavelength minimizes extinction in heavily obscured regions, yet is short enough that the continuum is relatively undiluted by thermal emission. A new instrument, now under development at the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas, will provide complimentary measurements of the most massive, compact nuclei with large velocity dispersions.
