Optical IFU observations of GOALS sample with KOOLS-IFU on Seimei Telescope: Initial results of nine U/LIRGs at z < 0.04

Abstract We present ionized gas properties of nine local ultra/luminous infrared galaxies (U/LIRGs) at z < 0.04 through Integral Field Unit (IFU) observations with KOOLS-IFU on the Seimei Telescope. The observed targets are drawn from the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey (GOALS), covering a wide range of merger stages. We successfully detect emission lines such as Hβ, [O iii]λ5007, Hα, [N ii]λλ6549, 6583, and [S ii]λλ6717, 6731 with a spectral resolution of R = 1500–2000, which provides (i) a spatially resolved (∼200–700 pc) moment map of ionized gas and (ii) diagnostics for an active galactic nucleus (AGN) within the central ∼3–11 kpc in diameter for our sample. We find that the [O iii] outflow that is expected to be driven by an AGN tends to be stronger (i) towards the galactic center and (ii) as a sequence of the merger stage. In particular, the outflow strength in the late-stage (stage D) mergers is about 1.5 times stronger than that in the early-state (stage B) mergers, which indicates that galaxy mergers could induce AGN-driven outflow and play an important role in the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes.