Science with NIFS, Australia's first Gemini instrument

The Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) will be Australia's fi rst Gemini instrument. NIFS is a near-infrared. imaging spectrograph that w ill be used with the ALTAIR facility adaptive optics system on Gemini North to perform near-diffraction-limited imaging spectroscopy over a 3.0" x 3.0 " field of view with 0.1" wide slitlets and a spectral resolving power of s imilar to 5300. NIFS will operate in the wavelength range from 0.94-2.50 mu m where ALTAIR delivers its greatest gains. Its primary purpose is to study moderate-surface-brightness structures around discrete objects that are re vealed at high spatial resolution by ALTAIR. NIFS will address a wide range of science from studies of Galactic star formation and the Galactic centre to the nature of disk galaxies at z similar to 1. Studies of the demograph ics of massive black holes in galactic nuclei and studies of the excitation conditions in the inner narrow-line regions of Seyfert galaxies have been identified as two core NIFS programs. These and other science drivers for N IFS are discussed.