• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.119-122
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• 1996

The case for a massive black hole in the center of the Galaxy is reassessed using improved modeling techniques and observational data. A dark mass of ${\~}{\times} 10^6$ Mo is present within 0.2 pc of the Galactic center. However, the available data can be modeled, without appealing to a massive black hole, using an extended distribution of dark stellar remnants (neutron stars and stellar mass black holes) provided that the stellar initial mass function in the central parsec is deficient in stars less massive than $\~$1 Mo. Such a situation may be a natural consequence of repeated gas build-up followed by starbursts in the central region. A clear distinction between this and the massive central black hole model cannot be made using red giant tracers outside 0.2 pc due to uncertainties in the radial velocity dispersion distribution. The cluster of massive early-type emission-line stars in the central parcsec more effectively probe the mass distribution close to Sgr A $\ast$, but their small number and partial rotational support complicate mass determinations. Proper motion determinations for stars within 0.5' of Sgr A$\ast$ may be the most effective means of unambiguously determining the mass distribution in the immediate vicinity of the Galactic center.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.20 no.1 s.24
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• pp.1-5
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• 2005

We report molecular line observations of CO(1-0), $^{13}CO(1-0)$, CS(2-1), and HCN(1-0) with SRAO 6m telescope toward L1014-IRS which is thought to be a very faint infrared source embedded in previously known 'starless' core L1014. The CO(1-0) observations find several components with different velocities along the line of sight of L1014, $4km\;s^{-1}$ and between $40{\sim}50km\;s^{-1}$. We find a parsec scale CO molecular outflow at the $4km\;s^{-1}$ component for the first time the direction of which is coincident with that of the small scale (${\sim}500pc$) outflow previously found. Although the observation is not covered for whole area of the outflow, the size of the molecular outflow seems not very inconsistent with the expected age of L1014-IRS. More accurate size and shape of the molecular outflow from L1014-IRS will be determined from the full coverage mapping in CO over the outflow region in very near future.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.60.2-60.2
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• 2018

We present the near infrared JHK photometric properties and the spatial distribution of red supergiants(RSGs) of NGC 3623, NGC 3627 and NGC 3628 in the Leo Triplet system using the data obtained with 3.8m UKIRT(United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope) at Hawaii. We checked interaction between the three galaxies by making a spatial density map of RSGs. From (J-K,K)0 Color-Magnitude Diagram which include resolved stars in three galaxy and control field with PARSEC isochrone, we figured out the RSG candidates of the Leo triplet are at 0.9<(J-K)0<1.2, mK<17.5 and separated them from background and foreground sources. Using gaussian kernel density estimation, we drew spatial density map of RSGs in the Leo triplet with an assumption that all RSGs are an identical population. The density map shows extended features of NGC 3628 to NGC 3627 along the declination direction. The asymmetries between NGC 3627 and NGC 3628 might be evidence for that the distribution of actual star components(RSGs) follows the neutral hydrogen distribution and also for interaction between two galaxies. And the extended features along the right ascension direction might be a supporting evidence for the existence of a TDG(Tidal Dwarf Galaxy). In case of NGC 3623, we could not see any sign of interaction in density map.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.453-455
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• 2015

In this paper we introduce the Plasma Physics of Active Galactic Nuclei project, which is an ongoing experiment with Korean VLBI Network (KVN) and KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) to study multi-frequency polarimetric properties on parsec scales of active galaxies. The goal of the project is to improve our understanding of fundamental jet physics, especially evolution of the relativistic outflow coupled with the large-scale magnetic field. We selected six radio-loud AGN as our targets. So far we (i) detected resolved emissions regions at 86 and 129 GHz on VLBI scales, (ii) constructed 2D spectral index maps of the outflows, and (iii) found polarizations at 22 and 43 GHz for a few targets. Here we present spectral index distributions of 3C 120 between 22 and 43 GHz and a linear polarization map of BL Lac at 43 GHz obtained with KVN.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.69.1-69.1
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• 2019

We present the ALMA observations of the infrared dark cloud (IRDC) core MSXDC G053.11+00.05 MM1 at the distance of 1.7 kpc. While the core was first identified at 1.2 mm with a mass of 124 Msun, recent near- and mid-infrared observations have revealed a parsec-scale molecular hydrogen (H2 1-0 S(1) at 2.12 micron) outflow and two early class young stellar objects (YSOs) at the center of the core, one of which is likely massive (M > 8 Msun). From the ALMA Band 7 observations with a resolution of 0.5", we have found a dust filament of < 0.1 pc in which five dense cores are embedded in the 870 micron continuum. The brightest core is consistent with one of the two previously-detected YSOs, but the other four are newly discovered implying their very deeply embedded status. We have also detected several molecular line emission including H13CO+ and C17O as well as 13CO outflow with complicated morphology. At the brightest core, the methanol line (CH3OH) shows velocity gradients, which may support the existence of a circumstellar disk around a high-mass protostar. Based on the derived properties of the dense cores, we discuss their association with the two YSOs and H2 outflow detected in infrared and high-mass star-formation process occurring in IRDC cores.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.117-123
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• 2020

We investigate the plausibility of mass return, from stellar mass loss processes within the central ~100 pc region of the Milky Way (the inner nuclear bulge), as a mass supply mechanism for the Circumnuclear Disk (CND). Gas in the Galactic disk migrates inward to the Galactic centre due to the asymmetric potential caused by the Galactic bar. The inward migration of gas stops and accumulates to form the central molecular zone (CMZ), at 100-200 pc from the Galactic center. It is commonly assumed that stars have formed in the CMZ throughout the lifetime of the Galaxy and have diffused inward to form a 'r-2 stellar cusp' within the inner nuclear bulge. We propose that the stars migrating inward from the CMZ supply gas to the inner nuclear bulge via stellar mass loss, resulting in the formation of a gas disk along the Galactic plane and subsequent inward migration down to the central 10 pc region (CND). We simulate the evolution of a gas distribution that initially follows the stellar distribution of the aforementioned stellar cusp, and illustrate the potential gas supply toward the CND.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.72.3-72.3
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• 2019

OB associations are young stellar systems on a few tens to a hundred parsec scale, and many of them are composed of multiple substructures. It is suggested that some hints about their formation process are probably imprinted on structural features and internal kinematics. In this context, we study the massive star forming region W4 in the Cassiopeia OB6 association using the Gaia proper motion data and high-resolution optical spectra taken from Hectochelle on MMT. We probe the structure and internal kinematics of W4 to trance its formation process. Several nonmembers with different kinematic properties are excluded in our sample. Some of them may be young stellar population spread over a large area of the Perseus spiral arm given their wide spatial distribution over 50 parsecs. W4 is composed of an central open cluster (IC 1805) and an extended stellar component. Their global expansion patterns are detected in stellar proper motion. In this presentation, we will further discuss the formation process of W4, based on the velocity dispersions of stars comprising these substructure.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.30.2-31
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• 2020

We present the properties of circumnuclear gas associated with the AGN located in the center of Abell 1644-South. A1644-S is the main cluster in a merging system, which is also known for gas sloshing in its core as seen in X-ray. The X-ray emission of A1644-S shows a rapidly declining profile, indicating the presence of cooling gas flow. This flow of cool gas may fuel the supermassive black hole embedded in the brightest cluster galaxy, leading to the activation of the central AGN. Indeed, we find a parsec-scale bipolar jet feature in the center of A1644-S in our recent KaVA observation, which implies that its central AGN is likely to have been (re)powered quite recently. In order to verify the hypothesis that cooling gas flow in the cluster core can (re)activate the central AGN, we probe the cold gas properties of the central 1 kpc region of A1644-S using the archival VLA and ALMA data. Based on the spatially resolved morphology and kinematics of HI and CO gas, we challenge to identify inflow/outflow gas streams and clumps. We study the role of circumnuclear cool gas in fueling the centrally located cluster AGN in the cool-core environment. We also discuss how the feedback due to the (re)powered AGN affects the surrounding medium.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2015

We present hydrodynamic simulations of gas clouds that inflowing from the disk to a few hundred parsec region of the Milky Way. Realistic Galactic structures are included in our simulations by thousands of multipole expansions that describe 6.4 million stellar particles of a self-consistent Galaxy simulation (Baba, Saitoh & Wada, in prep.). We find that a hybrid multipole expansion model with two different basis sets and a thick disk correction well reproduces the overall structures of the Milky Way. We find that the nuclear ring evolves into 240 pc at T~1500 Myr, regardless of the initial size. For most of simulation runs, gas inflow rate to the nuclear region is equilibrated as ~0.02 Msun/yr, and thus accumulated gas mass and star formation activity is stabilized as $6{\times}10^7Msun$ and ~0.02M/yr, respectively. These stabilized values are in a good agreement with estimations for the CMZ. The nuclear ring is off-centered to the Galactic center by the lopsided central mass distribution of the Galaxy model, and thus an asymmetric mass distribution is arose accordingly. The lopsidedness also leads the nuclear ring to be tilted to the Galactic plane and to precess along the Galaxy rotation. In early evolutionary stage when gas clouds start to inflow and form the nuclear ring, the z-directional oscillations of the gas clouds results in the twisted, infinity-shaped nuclear ring. Since the infinity-shaped feature is transient only for first 100 Myr, the current infinity-shape observed in the CMZ may indicate that the CMZ forms quite recently.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.299-311
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• 2015

We report first results from KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) VLBI observations obtained in the frame of our Plasma-physics of Active Galactic Nuclei (PAGaN) project. We observed eight selected AGN at 22 and 43 GHz in single polarization (LCP) between March 2014 and April 2015. Each source was observed for 6 to 8 hours per observing run to maximize the uv coverage. We obtained a total of 15 deep high-resolution images permitting the identification of individual circular Gaussian jet components and three spectral index maps of BL Lac, 3C 111 and 3C 345 from simultaneous dual-frequency observations. The spectral index maps show trends in agreement with general expectations – flat core and steep jets – while the actual value of the spectral index for jets shows indications for a dependence on AGN type. We analyzed the kinematics of jet components of BL Lac and 3C 111, detecting superluminal proper motions with maximum apparent speeds of about 5c. This constrains the lower limits of the intrinsic component velocities to ~ 0.98c and the upper limits of the angle between jet and line of sight to ~20°. In agreement with global jet expansion, jet components show systematically larger diameters d at larger core distances r, following the global relation d ≈ 0.2r, albeit within substantial scatter.