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We present a spatially resolved H ii region study of the gas-phase metallicity, ionization parameter, and interstellar medium (ISM) pressure maps of six local star-forming and face-on spiral galaxies from the TYPHOON program. Self-consistent metallicity, ionization parameter, and pressure maps are calculated simultaneously through an iterative process to provide useful measures of the local chemical abundance and its relation to localized ISM properties. We constrain the presence of azimuthal variations in metallicity by measuring the residual metallicity offset Δ(O/H) after subtracting the linear fits to the radial metallicity profiles. We, however, find weak evidence of azimuthal variations in most of the galaxies, with small (mean 0.03 dex) scatter. The galaxies instead reveal that H ii regions with enhanced and reduced abundances are found distributed throughout the disk. While the spiral pattern plays a role in organizing the ISM, it alone does not establish the relatively uniform azimuthal variations we observe. Differences in the metal abundances are more likely driven by the strong correlations with the local physical conditions. We find a strong and positive correlation between the ionization parameter and the local abundances as measured by the relative metallicity offset Δ(O/H), indicating a tight relationship between local physical conditions and their localized enrichment of the ISM. Additionally, we demonstrate the impact of unresolved observations on the measured ISM properties by rebinning the data cubes to simulate low-resolution (1 kpc) observations, typical of large IFU surveys. We find that the ionization parameter and ISM pressure diagnostics are impacted by the loss of resolution such that their measured values are larger relative to the measured values on sub-H ii region scales.

Local analog galaxies play an important role in understanding the properties of high-redshift galaxies. We present a method to select a type of local analog that closely resembles the ionized interstellar medium conditions in high-redshift galaxies. These galaxies are selected based on their locations in the [O III]/Hβ versus [N II]/Hα nebular emission-line diagnostic diagram. The ionization parameters and electron densities in these analogs are comparable to those in z ≃ 2 − 3 galaxies, but higher than those in normal SDSS galaxies by ≃ 0.6 dex and ≃ 0.9 dex, respectively. We find that the high sSFR and SFR surface density can enhance the electron densities and the ionization parameters, but still cannot fully explain the difference in ISM condition between nearby galaxies and the local analogs/high-redshift galaxies.

We demonstrate a robust method of resolving the star-formation and AGN contributions to emission lines using two very well known AGN systems: NGC 1365, and NGC 1068, using the high spatial resolution data from the TYPHOON/PrISM survey. We expand the previous method of calculating the AGN fraction by using theoretical-based model grids rather than empirical points. The high spatial resolution of the TYPHOON/PrISM observations show evidence of both star formation and AGN activity occurring in the nuclei of the two galaxies. We rebin the data to the lower resolutions, typically found in other integral field spectroscopy surveys such as SAMI, MaNGA, and CALIFA. The results show that when rebinned from the native resolution of TYPHOON (< 200 pc/pixel) to 1 kpc/pixel, the effects include a roughly 3 kpc increase in the radius of measured AGN activity, and a factor of 2 to 7 increase in the detection of low surface brightness features such as shocks. All of this information is critical, because information on certain physical processes may be lost at varying resolutions. We make recommendations for analysing data at current IFU survey resolutions., 30 pages, 28 figures, accepted for publication by MNRAS

In an attempt to remove the systematic errors which have plagued the calibration of the HII region abundance sequence, we have theoretically modeled the extragalactic HII region sequence. We then used the theoretical spectra so generated in a double blind experiment to recover the chemical abundances using both the classical electron temperature + ionization correction factor technique, and the technique which depends on the use of strong emission lines (SELs) in the nebular spectrum to estimate the abundance of oxygen. We find a number of systematic trends, and we provide correction formulae which should remove systematic errors in the electron temperature + ionization correction factor technique. We also provide a critical evaluation of the various semi-empirical SEL techniques. Finally, we offer a scheme which should help to eliminate systematic errors in the SEL-derived chemical abundance scale for extragalactic HII regions.

We present results from 4.8 GHz Very Large Array (VLA) and global very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of the northern half of the moderate FIR luminosity (median L_(IR) = 10^(11.01) L_☉) COLA sample of star-forming galaxies. VLBI sources are detected in a high fraction (20/90) of the galaxies observed. The radio luminosities of these cores (~10^(21) W Hz^(–1)) are too large to be explained by radio supernovae or supernova remnants and we argue that they are instead powered by active galactic nuclei (AGNs). These sub-parsec scale radio cores are preferentially detected toward galaxies whose VLA maps show bright 100-500 parsec scale nuclear radio components. Since these latter structures tightly follow the FIR to radio-continuum correlation for star formation, we conclude that the AGN-powered VLBI sources are associated with compact nuclear starburst environments. The implications for possible starburst-AGN connections are discussed. The detected VLBI sources have a relatively narrow range of radio luminosity consistent with models in which intense compact Eddington-limited starbursts regulate the gas supply onto a central supermassive black hole. The high incidence of AGN radio cores in compact starbursts suggests little or no delay between the starburst phase and the onset of AGN activity.

We investigate the fraction of starbursts, starburst-AGN composites, Seyferts, and LINERs as a function of infrared luminosity (L_IR) and merger progress for ~500 infrared-selected galaxies. Using the new optical classifications afforded by the extremely large data set of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we find that the fraction of LINERs in IR-selected samples is rare ( 10^12 L_odot), starburst-AGN composite galaxies dominate at early--intermediate stages of the merger, and AGN galaxies dominate during the final merger stages. Our results are consistent with models for IR-luminous galaxies where mergers of gas-rich spirals fuel both starburst and AGN, and where the AGN becomes increasingly dominant during the final merger stages of the most luminous infrared objects.

While the broad-lined Type Ic supernovae (SN Ic-bl) associated with long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been studied, we do not fully understand the conditions that lead to each kind of explosion in a massive star. Here we show clues as to the production mechanism of GRBs by comparing the chemical abundances at the sites of 5 nearby (z < 0.25) broad-lined SN Ic that accompany nearby GRBs with those of 12 nearby (z < 0.14) broad-lined SN Ic that have no observed GRBs. We show that the oxygen abundances at the GRB sites are systematically lower than those found near ordinary broad-lined SN Ic. A unique feature of this analysis is that we present new spectra of the host galaxies and analyze the measurements of both samples in the same set of ways, using 3 independent metallicity diagnostics. We demonstrate that neither SN selection effects (SN found via targeted vs. non-targeted surveys) nor the choice of strong-line metallicity diagnostic can cause the observed trend. Though our sample size is small, the observations are consistent with the hypothesis that low metal abundance is the cause of some massive stars becoming SN-GRB. We derive a cut-off metallicity of 0.2−0.6 Z⊙, with the exact value depending on the adopted metallicity scale and solar abundance value.

We present a spectroscopic survey of galaxies in the COSMOS field using the Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph (FMOS), a near-infrared instrument on the Subaru Telescope. Our survey is specifically designed to detect the Halpha emission line that falls within the H-band (1.6-1.8 um) spectroscopic window from star-forming galaxies with 1.4 < z < 1.7 and M_stellar>~10^10 Msolar. With the high multiplex capability of FMOS, it is now feasible to construct samples of over one thousand galaxies having spectroscopic redshifts at epochs that were previously challenging. The high-resolution mode (R~2600) effectively separates Halpha and [NII]6585 thus enabling studies of the gas-phase metallicity and photoionization state of the interstellar medium. The primary aim of our program is to establish how star formation depends on stellar mass and environment, both recognized as drivers of galaxy evolution at lower redshifts. In addition to the main galaxy sample, our target selection places priority on those detected in the far-infrared by Herschel/PACS to assess the level of obscured star formation and investigate, in detail, outliers from the star formation rate - stellar mass relation. Galaxies with Halpha detections are followed up with FMOS observations at shorter wavelengths using the J-long (1.11-1.35 um) grating to detect Hbeta and [OIII]5008 that provides an assessment of extinction required to measure star formation rates not hampered by dust, and an indication of embedded Active Galactic Nuclei. With 460 redshifts measured from 1153 spectra, we assess the performance of the instrument with respect to achieving our goals, discuss inherent biases in the sample, and detail the emission-line properties. Our higher-level data products, including catalogs and spectra, are available to the community., 26 pages, Updated version resubmitted to ApJSS; Data products and catalogs are now available at http://member.ipmu.jp/fmos-cosmos/

This paper presents both stellar mass and H ii region diagnostics based on dusty, radiation-pressure-dominated photoionization models for compact and ultracompact H ii regions, and compares these with observational constraints. These models successfully reproduce the observed relationship between the density and the thickness of the ionized layer. The absorption of ionizing photons in the dusty ionized plasma makes denser ionized regions thinner than simple photoionization models would predict, improving the fit with the observations. The models provideagoodfittoobserveddiagnosticplotsinvolvingratiosofinfraredemissionlines,allaccessiblewiththeIRS instrument of theSpitzer Space Telescope. These give the effective temperature to an accuracy of about 2500 K and themassoftheionizingstartoaprecisionofabout � 30%.TheSiv/Siiiratioissensitivetoforegroundextinctionas well as to stellar effective temperature or mass. From this ratio, we determine that the mean extinction to observed compact H iiregions is typically AV � 30 mag. The electron temperature depends on the chemical abundances, the pressure, and theeffective temperature ofthe excitingstar. We usethesemodelsto rederivethe slope oftheGalactic abundance gradient, with the result that d log (O/H)/dRG ¼ 0:06 � 0:01 dex kpc � 1 , bringing the Galactic abundance gradient derived from compact H ii regions into closer agreement with those based on other techniques. The shape of the far-IR SED of compact H ii regions can be used to constrain the mean pressure or density in the H ii region. The Spitzer MIPS instrument should be very helpful in this regard. Subject headings: circumstellarmatter — dust,extinction — galaxies:starburst — Hiiregions — infrared:ISM — techniques: spectroscopic

(Abridged) Far ultraviolet to far infrared images of the nearby galaxy NGC5194, from Spitzer, GALEX, Hubble Space Telescope and ground--based data, are used to investigate local and global star formation, and the impact of dust extinction in HII-emitting knots. In the IR/UV-UV color plane, the NGC5194 HII knots show the same trend observed for normal star-forming galaxies, having a much larger dispersion than starburst galaxies. We identify the dispersion as due to the UV emission predominantly tracing the evolved, non-ionizing stellar population, up to ages 50-100 Myr. While in starbursts the UV light traces the current SFR, in NGC5194 it traces a combination of current and recent-past SFR. Unlike the UV emission, the monochromatic 24 micron luminosity is an accurate local SFR tracer for the HII knots in NGC5194; this suggests that the 24 micron emission carriers are mainly heated by the young, ionizing stars. However, preliminary results show that the ratio of the 24 micron emission to the SFR varies by a factor of a few from galaxy to galaxy. While also correlated with star formation, the 8 micron emission is not directly proportional to the number of ionizing photons. This confirms earlier suggestions that the carriers of the 8 micron emission are heated by more than one mechanism., 66 pages, 20 figures (Figures 1-4 are in JPEG format, figures 5-20 are embedded postscript files). Accepted for publication on the Astrophysical Journal

In this letter we report the detection of a strong and extremely blueshifted X-ray absorption feature in the 1 Ms Chandra spectrum of CXO CDFS J033260.0-274748, a quasar at z = 2.579 with L_2-10keV ~ 4x10^44 ergs/s. The broad absorption feature at ~ 6.3 keV in the observed frame can be fitted either as an absorption edge at 20.9 keV or as a broad absorption line at 22.2 keV rest frame. The absorber has to be extremely ionized with an ionization parameter ��~ 10^4, and a high column density N_H >5x10^23 cm^-2. We reject the possibility of a statistical or instrumental artifact. The most likely interpretation is an extremely blueshifted broad absorption line or absorption edge, due to H or He--like iron in a relativistic jet-like outflow with bulk velocity of ~ 0.7-0.8 c. Similar relativistic outflows have been reported in the X-ray spectra of several other AGNs in the past few years., ApJ letter accepted

The nearby spiral galaxy NGC 7331 was spectrally mapped from 5-38um using all modules of Spitzer's IRS spectrograph. A strong new dust emission feature, presumed due to PAHs, was discovered at 17.1um. The feature's intensity is nearly half that of the ubiquitous 11.3um band. The 7-14um spectral maps revealed significant variation in the 7.7 and 11.3um PAH features between the stellar ring and nucleus. Weak [OIV] 25.9um line emission was found to be centrally concentrated in the nucleus, with an observed strength over 10% of the combined neon line flux, indicating an AGN or unusually active massive star photo-ionization. Two [SIII] lines fix the characteristic electron density in the HII regions at n_e < ~200 cm^-3. Three detected H_2 rotational lines, tracing warm molecular gas, together with the observed IR continuum, are difficult to match with standard PDR models. Either additional PDR heating or shocks are required to simultaneously match lines and continuum.

We take advantage of the first data from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field (SAMI) Galaxy Survey to investigate the relation between the kinematics of gas and stars, and stellar mass in a comprehensive sample of nearby galaxies. We find that all 235 objects in our sample, regardless of their morphology, lie on a tight relation linking stellar mass ($M_{*}$) to internal velocity quantified by the $S_{0.5}$ parameter, which combines the contribution of both dispersion ($\sigma$) and rotational velocity ($V_{rot}$) to the dynamical support of a galaxy ($S_{0.5}=\sqrt{0.5V_{rot}^{2}+\sigma^{2}}$). Our results are independent of the baryonic component from which $\sigma$ and $V_{rot}$ are estimated, as the $S_{0.5}$ of stars and gas agree remarkably well. This represents a significant improvement compared to the canonical $M_{*}$ vs. $V_{rot}$ and $M_{*}$ vs. $\sigma$ relations. Not only is no sample pruning necessary, but also stellar and gas kinematics can be used simultaneously, as the effect of asymmetric drift is taken into account once $V_{rot}$ and $\sigma$ are combined. Our findings illustrate how the combination of dispersion and rotational velocities for both gas and stars can provide us with a single dynamical scaling relation valid for galaxies of all morphologies across at least the stellar mass range 8.5$, Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

We present the spatial distribution of the bright near-infrared emission lines, Brγ, H2, He I, [Fe II], and the CO band longwards of 2.3 μm, for the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 1614. The morphology of the ionised gas is different from that of the stellar light, and possibly forms a circumnuclear ring. Our data imply that the stellar population is older and the extinction is lower in the nucleus relative to the surrounding circumnuclear ring. We suggest that NGC 1614 is a galaxy whose recent interaction triggered massive star formation in the nucleus, which in turn caused a radially outward progression of star formation thereby producing the circumnuclear ring we observe today. There is no evidence for a buried AGN, and it is difficult to reconcile our data with the simple evolutionary model of ultraluminous galaxies proposed by Sanders et al (1988).

The Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS) is a comprehensive, multiwavelength study of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) in the local universe. Here we present low resolution Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph spectra covering 5-38 μm and provide a basic analysis of the mid-IR spectral properties observed for nearby LIRGs. In a companion paper, we discuss detailed fits to the spectra and compare the LIRGs to other classes of galaxies. The GOALS sample of 244 nuclei in 180 luminous (10^(11) ≤ L_(IR)/L_☉ < 10^(12)) and 22 ultraluminous (L_(IR)/L_☉ ≥ 10^(12)) IR galaxies represents a complete subset of the IRAS Revised Bright Galaxy Sample and covers a range of merger stages, morphologies, and spectral types. The majority (>60%) of the GOALS LIRGs have high 6.2 μm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) equivalent widths (EQW_(6.2 μm) > 0.4 μm) and low levels of silicate absorption (s 9.7 μm > –1.0). There is a general trend among the U/LIRGs for both silicate depth and mid-infrared (MIR) slope to increase with increasing L_(IR). U/LIRGs in the late to final stages of a merger also have, on average, steeper MIR slopes and higher levels of dust obscuration. Together, these trends suggest that as gas and dust is funneled toward the center of a coalescing merger, the nuclei become more compact and more obscured. As a result, the dust temperature increases also leading to a steeper MIR slope. The sources that depart from these correlations have very low PAH equivalent width (EQW_(6.2 μm) < 0.1 μm) consistent with their emission being dominated by an active galactic nucleus (AGN) in the MIR. These extremely low PAH EQW sources separate into two distinct types: relatively unobscured sources with a very hot dust component (and thus very shallow MIR slopes) and heavily dust obscured nuclei with a steep temperature gradient. The most heavily dust obscured sources are also the most compact in their MIR emission, suggesting that the obscuring (cool) dust is associated with the outer regions of the starburst and not simply a measure of the dust along the line of sight through a large, dusty disk. A marked decline is seen for the fraction of high EQW (star formation dominated) sources as the merger progresses. The decline is accompanied by an increase in the fraction of composite sources while the fraction of sources where an AGN dominates the MIR emission remains low. When compared to the MIR spectra of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) at z ~ 2, both the average GOALS LIRG and ULIRG spectra are more absorbed at 9.7 μm and the average GOALS LIRG has more PAH emission. However, when the AGN contributions to both the local GOALS LIRGs and the high-z SMGs are removed, the average local starbursting LIRG closely resembles the starburst-dominated SMGs.

We present the mass-metallicity (MZ) and luminosity-metallicity (LZ) relations at z ~ 0.8 from ~1350 galaxies in the Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2 (DEEP2) survey. We determine stellar masses by fitting the spectral energy distribution inferred from photometry with current stellar population synthesis models. This work raises the number of galaxies with metallicities at z ~ 0.8 by more than an order of magnitude. We investigate the evolution in the MZ and LZ relations in comparison with local MZ and LZ relations determined in a consistent manner using ~21,000 galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We show that high stellar mass galaxies (log(M/M_solar)~10.6) at z ~ 0.8 have attained the chemical enrichment seen in the local universe, while lower stellar mass galaxies (log(M/M_solar)~9.2) at z ~ 0.8 have lower metallicities (Delta log(O/H)~0.15 dex) than galaxies at the same stellar mass in the local universe. We find that the LZ relation evolves in both metallicity and B-band luminosity between z ~ 0.8 and z~ 0, with the B-band luminosity evolving as a function of stellar mass. We emphasize that the B-band luminosity should not be used as a proxy for stellar mass in chemical evolution studies of star-forming galaxies. Our study shows that both the metallicity evolution and the B-band luminosity evolution for emission-line galaxies between the epochs are a function of stellar mass, consistent with the cosmic downsizing scenario of galaxy evolution., Comment: Accepted Version: 18 pages, 13 figures

We combine the the stellar spectral synthesis code Starburst99, the nebular modelling code MAPPINGSIII, and a 1-D dynamical evolution model of HII regions around massive clusters of young stars to generate improved models of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of starburst galaxies. We introduce a compactness parameter, C, which characterizes the specific intensity of the radiation field at ionization fronts in HII regions, and which controls the shape of the far-IR dust re-emission, often referred to loosely as the dust ``temperature''. We also investigate the effect of metallicity on the overall SED and in particular, on the strength of the PAH features. We provide templates for the mean emission produced by the young compact HII regions, the older (10 - 100 Myr) stars and for the wavelength-dependent attenuation produced by a foreground screen of the dust used in our model. We demonstrate that these components may be combined to produce a excellent fit to the observed SEDs of star formation dominated galaxies which are often used as templates (Arp 220 and NGC 6240). This fit extends from the Lyman Limit to wavelengths of about one mm. The methods presented in both this paper and in the previous papers of this series allow the extraction of the physical parameters of the starburst region (star formation rates, star formation rate history, mean cluster mass, metallicity, dust attenuation and pressure) from the analysis of the pan-spectral SED., 35 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in ApJS full-res available at http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~brent/publications/SEDIV.pdf

Measuring the population of obscured quasars is one of the key issues to understand the evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). With a redshift completeness of 99%, the X-ray sources detected in Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S) provide the best sample for this issue. In this letter we study the population of obscured quasars in CDF-S by choosing the 4 -- 7 keV selected sample, which is less biased by the intrinsic X-ray absorption. The 4 -- 7 keV band selected samples also filter out most of the X-ray faint sources with too few counts, for which the measurements of N_H and L_X have very large uncertainties. Simply adopting the best-fit L_2-10keV and N_H, we find 71% (20 out of 28) of the quasars (with intrinsic L_2-10keV > 10^44 erg/s) are obscured with N_H > 10^22 cm^-2. Taking account of the uncertainties in the measurements of both N_H and L_X, conservative lower and upper limits of the fraction are 54% (13 out 24) and 84% (31 out 37). In Chandra Deep Field North, the number is 29%, however, this is mainly due to the redshift incompleteness. We estimate a fraction of ~ 50% - 63% after correcting the redshift incompleteness with a straightforward approach. Our results robustly confirm the existence of a large population of obscured quasars.

Mid-infrared diagnostics are presented for a large portion of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) sample plus archival data from the Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our main result is that these mid-infrared diagnostics effectively constrain a target's dominant power source. The combination of a high ionization line index and PAH strength serves as an efficient discriminant between AGN and star-forming nuclei, confirming progress made with ISO spectroscopy on starbursting and ultraluminous infrared galaxies. The sensitivity of Spitzer allows us to probe fainter nuclei and star-forming regions within galaxy disks. We find that both star-forming nuclei and extranuclear regions stand apart from nuclei that are powered by Seyfert or LINER activity. In fact, we identify areas within four diagnostic diagrams containing >90% Seyfert/LINER nuclei or >90% HII regions/HII nuclei. We also find that, compared to starbursting nuclei, extranuclear regions typically separate even further from AGN, especially for low-metallicity extranuclear environments. In addition, instead of the traditional mid-infrared approach to differentiating between AGN and star-forming sources that utilizes relatively weak high-ionization lines, we show that strong low-ionization cooling lines of X-ray dominated regions like [SiII] 34.82 micron can alternatively be used as excellent discrimants. Finally, the typical target in this sample shows relatively modest interstellar electron density (~400 cm^{-3}) and obscuration (A_V ~ 1.0 mag for a foreground screen), consistent with a lack of dense clumps of highly obscured gas and dust residing in the emitting regions. [Abridged], Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We present results of a self-consistent model of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of starburst galaxies. Two parameters control the IR SED, the mean pressure in the ISM and the destruction timescale of molecular clouds. Adding a simplified AGN spectrum provides mixing lines on IRAS color : color diagrams. This reproduces the observed colors of both AGNs and starbursts., Comment: Poster Paper for IAU 222: The Interplay among Black Holes, Stars and ISM in Galactic Nuclei

We investigate the relationships between stellar mass, gas-phase oxygen abundance (metallicity), star formation rate, and dust content of star-forming galaxies at z$\sim$1.6 using Subaru/FMOS spectroscopy in the COSMOS field. The mass-metallicity relation at $z\sim1.6$ is steeper than the relation observed in the local Universe. The steeper MZ relation at $z\sim1.6$ is mainly due to evolution in the stellar mass where the MZ relation begins to turnover and flatten. This turnover mass is 1.2 dex larger at $z\sim1.6$. The most massive galaxies at $z\sim1.6$ ($\sim 10^{11}M_\odot$) are enriched to the level observed in massive galaxies in the local Universe. The mass-metallicity relation we measure at $z\sim1.6$ supports the suggestion of an empirical upper metallicity limit that does not significantly evolve with redshift. We find an anti-correlation between metallicity and star formation rate for galaxies at a fixed stellar mass at $z\sim1.6$ which is similar to trends observed in the local Universe. We do not find a relation between stellar mass, metallicity and star formation rate that is independent of redshift; our data suggest that there is redshift evolution in this relation. We examine the relation between stellar mass, metallicity and dust extinction. We find that at a fixed stellar mass dustier galaxies tend to be more metal rich. From examination of the stellar masses, metallicities, SFRs and dust extinctions we conclude that stellar mass is most closely related to dust extinction., Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures. Updated to accepted version

We present the first results from a near-IR spectroscopic survey of the COSMOS field, using the Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Subaru telescope, designed to characterize the star-forming galaxy population at $1.4, Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, and 1 table. Published in ApJ Letters

We present for the first time metallicity maps generated using data from the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) on the ANU 2.3m of 9 Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) and discuss the abundance gradients and distribution of metals in these systems. We have carried out optical integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of several several LIRGs in various merger phases to investigate the merger process. In a major merger of two spiral galaxies with preexisting disk abundance gradients, the changing distribution of metals can be used as a tracer of gas flows in the merging system as low metallicity gas is transported from the outskirts of each galaxy to their nuclei. We employ this fact to probe merger properties by using the emission lines in our IFS data to calculate the gas-phase metallicity in each system. We create abundance maps and subsequently derive a metallicity gradient from each map. We compare our measured gradients to merger stage as well as several possible tracers of merger progress and observed nuclear abundances. We discuss our work in the context of previous abundance gradient observations and compare our results to new galaxy merger models which trace metallicity gradient. Our results agree with the observed flattening of metallicity gradients as a merger progresses. We compare our results with new theoretical predictions that include chemical enrichment. Our data show remarkable agreement with these simulations.