Abstract: I will present KOALA: the Keck OSIRIS AO LIRG Analysis, an adaptive optics-assisted near-infrared integral field spectroscopy campaign of 30+ nearby gas-rich galaxy merger nuclei. Our dataset traces stellar and gas kinematics and properties at few 10s of pc resolution, providing an excellent laboratory for studying the fueling and feedback associated with the central supermassive black holes and nuclear starbursts. These data have shown that 50 – 500 pc nuclear disks are a nearly ubiquitous mechanism for funneling gas to the black holes. High central dynamical masses suggest that black holes may 'claim their mass' early in a merger, but that that material takes much of the merger timescale to find its way through the accretion process. This gas pileup scenario is supported by recent ultra-longbaseline ALMA observations and presents a significant challenge to current common sub-grid black hole accretion rate prescriptions. Our dataset also reveals high ratios of shock-excited molecular gas (H2 2.12 micron emission) compared to ionized hydrogen (Br gamma emission) reveal star formation- and AGN-driven nuclear outflows that in some cases can be traced out to several kpc scales.
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