Stellar Populations in the Nucleus of NGC 6764

Abstract

We present first results of near-infrared integral field spectroscopy of the central 8''$\times$8'' of the Wolf-Rayet nucleus of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6764. In addition to stellar CO and Na I absorption lines as well as recombination lines of H and He I the K-band spectrum shows strong emission from molecular hydrogen. Analysis of the stellar nuclear light using population synthesis in conjunction with NIR spectral synthesis suggests either the presence of two starbursts with ages of $\sim$ 5 Myrs and $\sim$ 20 Myrs or continuous star formation with an star formation rate of $\sim$ 0.4 \solm yr^{-1} over the past 1 Gyr.