Involved people at OAB: Origlia.
In collaboration with E. Oliva (OAA) and A. Moorwood (ESO) Origlia is performing near IR spectroscopic surveys of active galaxies to classify their starburst events and to trace their evolution also in connection with the nuclear activity. A few interesting absorption features due to the red stellar populations and emission lines from the ionizing gas are indeed present in the infrared spectra of starburst and Seyfert galaxies. By measuring the line velocity dispersions and equivalent widths, an estimate of the stellar light to mass ratios and warm dust emission can be inferred. These quantities provide important constraints to the starburst--AGN connection in the galaxy central regions.