• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.50.1-50.1
• /
• 2012

As a tracer of star formation history, metallicity provides crucial information for understanding galaxy evolution. In the case AGN, gas metallicity is often derived from the flux ratio of UV emission lines, i.e., NV1240 and CIV1549. To investigate the dependence of metallicity on AGN luminosity, black hole mass, and accretion rate, we measure NV1240 and CIV1549 line fluxes and derive gas metallicity of a sample of 73 local Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs, using archival UV spectra obtained with the HST and IUE. In this work, we will present the metallicity of local AGN and its relation with AGN properties.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.35.1-35.1
• /
• 2012

Determining the virial factor of the broad-line region (BLR) gas is crucial in calibrating AGN black hole mass estimators, since the measured line-of-sight velocity needs to be converted into the representative velocity of the BLR gas. The unknown virial factor has been empirically calibrated based on the $M_{BH}-{\sigma}_*$ relation of non-AGN galaxies, but the claimed values are different by a factor of 2 in recent studies. We investigate the origin of the difference by measuring the $M_{BH}-{\sigma}_*$ relation using the most updated nearby galaxy sample, and explore the dependence of the virial factor on the various fitting methods. We find that the discrepancy is mostly caused by the sample bias while the difference stemming from various regression methods is marginal. Based on the best-determined virial factor, we present the updated $M_{BH}-{\sigma}_*$ relation of local active galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.71-87
• /
• 2011

Gravitational waves are predicted by the Einstein's theory of General Relativity. The direct detection of gravitational waves is one of the most challenging tasks in modern science and engineering due to the 'weak' nature of gravity. Recent development of the laser interferometer technology, however, makes it possible to build a detector on Earth that is sensitive up to 100-1000 Mpc for strong sources. It implies an expected detection rate of neutron star mergers, which are one of the most important targets for ground-based detectors, ranges between a few to a few hundred per year. Therefore, we expect that the gravitational-wave observation will be routine within several years. Strongest gravitational-wave sources include tight binaries composed of compact objects, supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, mergers of supermassive black holes, etc. Together with the electromagnetic waves, the gravitational wave observation will allow us to explore the most exotic nature of astrophysical objects as well as the very early evolution of the universe. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the theory of gravitational waves, principles of detections, gravitational-wave detectors, astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, and future prospects.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.48.1-48.1
• /
• 2015

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are powered by a supermassive black hole with an accretion disk and exhibit prominent broad and narrow emission lines. The unification model AGNs requires the presence of a geometrically and optically thick torus component that hides the broad line region from observers lying in the equatorial direction. The strong far UV radiation characterizing AGN spectra is expected to be scattered inelastically in the torus region to reappear around hydrogen Balmer lines or Paschen lines in the form of broad wings. Adopting a Monte Carlo technique we produce broad wings around $H{\alpha}$, $H{\beta}$ and $Pa{\alpha}$ that are formed through Raman scattering. The widths of the wings are mainly affected by the neutral column density of the torus, and the overall strengths are primarily determined by the covering factor and the column density of the neutral region. It is concluded that deep spectroscopy of AGNs of broad wings around hydrogen emission lines may shed much light on the AGN unification model.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.33.1-33.1
• /
• 2012

We investigate the disk-jet connection of Young Radio Galaxies (YRGs) by comparing emission-line properties with radio luminosity and jet size. By combining new optical spectra for 21 objects with SDSS archival data for 15 objects, we selected a sample of 36 low-redshift YRGs at z < 0.4. We find that YRGs are classified in high- and low-excitation galaxies based on the relative strength of high-to-low excitation line strengths, suggesting that there are two populations in YRGs as similarly found in large radio galaxies, i.e., FRIs and FRIIs. High-excitation galaxies (HEGs) have higher emission line luminosities than low-excitation galaxies (LEGs) at fixed black hole mass and radio luminosity, suggesting that the Eddington ratio is higher in HEGs than in LEGs and that for given radio activity HEGs have higher accretion activity than LEGs. The difference between HEGs and LEGs is probably due to either mass accretion rate or radiative efficiency.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.68.2-68.2
• /
• 2016

We present the variability and time lag measurements of PG 0934+013 based on the photometric and spectroscopic monitoring campaign over two years. We obtained 46 epochs of data from the spectroscopic campaign, which was carried out using the South African Large Telescope with 1 week cadence over two sets of 4 month-long observing period, while we obtained 80 epochs of B band data from the campaign. Due to the six month gap between two campaigns, we separately measured the time lag of the $H{\beta}$ emission line by comparing the emission line light curve with the B band continuum light curve using the cross-correlation function techniques. We determined the time lags and black hole mass.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.72.4-73
• /
• 2015

Over the last decade, more than 50 quasars have been discovered at redshift about 6 when reionization of the universe occurred. However, most of them are luminous quasars (zAB < 21 mag), implying that such a biased quasar sample, which cannot represent the entire population of quasars at z~6, is not enough to understand the properties of quasars in the early universe. Recently, we have been performing the Infrared Medium-deep Survey (IMS), a moderately wide (120 deg2) and deep (JAB ~ 22.5 - 23 mag) near-infrared imaging survey. Combining this with the optical (ugriz) imaging data from the CFHT Legacy Survey (CFHTLS), we have identified more than 10 faint quasar candidates at z~6 in the IMS field by using multiple color selection criteria. From now on, we will perform spectroscopic confirmations of these faint quasar candidates with IMACS on the Magellan Baade Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory and GMOS on the Gemini South Telescope at Gemini Observatory. The confirmed quasars will be used to constrain the faint-end slope of the quasar luminosity function at z~6 and calculate the ratio of quasar ionizing flux to required flux for reionization of the universe. Moreover, these confirmed quasars will be followed up with near-infrared spectroscopy to determine their black hole masses and Eddington ratios to check the rapidness of their growth.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.51 no.4
• /
• pp.89-110
• /
• 2018

Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) variability can be used to study the physics of the region in the vicinity of the central black hole. In this paper, we investigated intra-night optical variability of AGN in the COSMOS field in order to understand the AGN instability at the smallest scale. Observations were performed using the KMTNet on three separate nights for 2.5 to 5 hours at a cadence of 20 to 30 min. We find that the observation enables the detection of short-term variability as small as ~ 0.02 and 0.1 mag for R ~ 18 and 20 mag sources, respectively. Using four selection methods (X-rays, mid-infrared, radio, and matching with SDSS quasars), 394 AGN are detected in the $4deg^2$ field of view. After differential photometry and ${\chi}^2$-test, we classify intra-night variable AGN. The fraction of variable AGN (0-8%) is statistically consistent with a null result. Eight out of 394 AGN are found to be intra-night variable in two filters or two nights with a variability level of 0.1 mag, suggesting that they are strong candidates for intra-night variable AGN. Still they represent a small population (2%). There is no sub-category of AGN that shows a statistically significant intra-night variability.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.565-568
• /
• 2015

In this work, we study the correlation between the photon index (${\Gamma}$) of the X-ray spectrum and the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity ($L_X$) for black hole X-ray binaries (BHBs). The BHB sample is mainly from the quiescent, hard and intermediate states, with values of $L_X$ ranging from ${\sim}10^{30.5}$ to $10^{37.5}$ erg $s^{-1}$. We find that the photon index ${\Gamma}$ is positively or negatively correlated with the X-ray luminosity $L_X$, for $L_X$ above or below a critical value, ${\sim}10^{36.5}$ erg $s^{-1}$. This result is consistent with previous works. Moreover, when $L_X{\leq}{\sim}10^{33}$ erg $s^{-1}$, we found that the photon index is roughly independent of the X-ray luminosity. We interpret the above correlations in the framework of a coupled hot accretion flow - jet model. Besides, we also find that in the moderate-luminosity region, different sources may have different anti-correlation slopes, and we argue this diversity is caused by the different value of ${\delta}$, which describes the fraction of turbulent dissipation that directly heats electrons.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.28.2-28.2
• /
• 2015

High redshift quasars (z > 5) hold keys to understanding the evolution of the universe in its early stage. Yet, the number of high redshift quasars uncovered from previous studies is relatively small (70 or so), and are concentrated mostly in a limited redshift range (z ~ 6). To understand the early mass growth of supermassive black holes and the final stage of the cosmic reionization, it is important to find a statistically meaningful sample of quasars with various physical properties. Here we present a survey for high redshift quasars at 5 < z < 7. Through color selection techniques using multi-wavelength data, we found quasar candidates and carried out imaging follow-up observations to reduce contaminants. After optical spectroscopy, we discovered eight new quasars. We obtained near-infrared spectra for 3 of these 8 quasars, measured their physical properties such as black hole masses and Eddington ratios, and found that the high redshift quasars we discovered are growing via accretion more vigorous than those of their lower redshift counterparts. We estimated the quasar number densities from our discoveries and compared them to those expected from the quasar luminosity functions in literature. In contrast to the observed number density of quasars at z ~ 5, which agrees with literature, the observed number density at z ~ 7 shows values lower than what is expected, even after considering an extrapolated number density evolution. We conclude that the quasar number density at z ~ 7 declines toward higher redshift, more steeply than the empirically expected evolution.