• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.5-16
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• 2018

We investigate the escape of $Ly{\beta}$ from emission nebulae with a significant population of excited hydrogen atoms in the level n = 2, rendering them optically thick in $H{\alpha}$. The transfer of $Ly{\beta}$ line photons in these optically thick regions is complicated by the presence of another scattering channel leading to re-emission of $H{\alpha}$, alternating their identities between $Ly{\beta}$ and $H{\alpha}$. In this work, we develop a Monte Carlo code to simulate the transfer of $Ly{\beta}$ line photons incorporating the scattering channel into $H{\alpha}$. Both $H{\alpha}$ and $Ly{\beta}$ lines are formed through diffusion in frequency space, where a line photon enters the wing regime after a fairly large number of resonance scatterings with hydrogen atoms. Various line profiles of $H{\alpha}$ and $Ly{\beta}$ emergent from our model nebulae are presented. It is argued that the electron temperature is a critical parameter which controls the flux ratio of emergent $Ly{\beta}$ and $H{\alpha}$. Specifically for $T\;=\;3{\times}10^4\;K$ and $H{\alpha}$ line center optical depth $\tau{\alpha}\;=\;10$, the number flux ratio of emergent $Ly{\beta}$ and $H{\alpha}$ is ~ 49 percent, which is quite significant. We propose that the leaking $Ly{\beta}$ can be an interesting source for the formation of $H{\alpha}$ wings observed in many symbiotic stars and active galactic nuclei. Similar broad $H{\alpha}$ wings are also expected in $Ly{\alpha}$ emitting halos found in the early universe, which can be potentially probed by the James Webb Telescope in the future.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.57.2-57.2
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• 2011

Recent studies find that some early-type galaxies host Type II or Ibc supernovae (SNe II, Ibc). This may imply recent star formation activities in these SNe host galaxies, but a massive star origin of the SNe Ib so far observed in early-type galaxies has been questioned because of their intrinsic faintness and unusually strong Ca lines shown in the nebular phase. To address the issue, we investigate the properties of early-type SNe host galaxies using the data with Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) ultraviolet photometry and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical data. Our sample includes eight SNe II and one peculiar SN Ib (SN 2000ds) host galaxies as well as 32 SN Ia host galaxies. The host galaxy of SN 2005cz, another peculiar SN Ib, is also analyzed using the GALEX data and the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database optical data. We find that the NUV?optical colors of SN II/Ib host galaxies are systematically bluer than those of SN Ia host galaxies, and some SN II/Ib host galaxies with NUV - r colors markedly bluer than the others exhibit strong radio emission. We perform a stellar population synthesis analysis and find a clear signature of recent star formation activities in most of the SN II/Ib host galaxies. Our results generally support the association of the SNe II/Ib hosted in early-type galaxies with core collapse of massive stars. We briefly discuss implications for the progenitors of the peculiar SNe Ib 2000ds and 2005cz.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.50.2-51
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• 2021

Stars form exclusively in cold and dense molecular clouds. To fully understand star formation processes, it is hence a key to investigate how molecular clouds form out of the surrounding diffuse atomic gas. With an aim of shedding light in the process of the atomic-to-molecular transition in the interstellar medium, we analyze Arecibo HI emission and absorption spectral pairs along with TRAO/PMO 12CO(1-0) emission spectra toward 58 lines of sight probing in and around molecular clouds in the solar neighborhood, i.e., Perseus, Taurus, and California. 12CO(1-0) is detected from 19 out of 58 lines of sight, and we report the physical properties of HI (e.g., central velocity, spin temperature, and column density) in the vicinity of CO. Our preliminary results show that the velocity difference between the cold HI (Cold Neutral Medium or CNM) and CO (median ~ 0.7 km/s) is on average more than a factor of two smaller than the velocity difference between the warm HI (Warm Neutral Medium or WNM) and CO (median ~ 1.7 km/s). In addition, we find that the CNM tends to become colder (median spin temperature ~ 43 K) and abundant (median CNM fraction ~ 0.55) as it gets closer to CO. These results hints at the evolution of the CNM in the vicinity of CO, implying a close association between the CNM and molecular gas. Finally, in order to examine the role of HI in the formation of molecular gas, we compare the observed CNM properties to the theoretical model by Bialy & Sternberg (2016), where the HI column density for the HI-to-H2 transition point is predicted as a function of density, metallicity, and UV radiation field. Our comparison shows that while the model reproduces the observations reasonably well on average, the observed CNM components with high column densities are much denser than the model prediction. Several sources of this discrepancy, e.g., missing physical and chemical ingredients in the model such as the multi-phase ISM, non-equilibrium chemistry, and turbulence, will be discussed.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.41.2-42
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• 2020

Understanding how the filamentary structure plays a role in the formation of the prestellar cores and stars is a key issue to challenge. We have observed two prestellar cores in surrounding filamentary environments in 13CO, C180 (3-2) and HCO+ (4-3) molecular lines with the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program (HARP) of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), in order to search for the evidence related to the possible flow motions along the filament and/or the radial accretion (or infalling motions) of gas material toward the dense cores from their surrounding filamentary cloud. In L1544, the velocity gradient of 1.6 km s-1 pc-1 toward the core was measured in a small branch of filament lying on a radial direction of main filament while no velocity gradient along the main axis of filament in both 13CO and C18O lines. In L694-2, we found the velocity gradient of 0.6 km s-1 pc-1 along the filament in only 13CO lines. The projected accretion rate of ~6 M◉ Myr-1 was estimated in both cases. The infall (or radially contracting) velocity of gas material was measured ~0.16 km s-1 in both 13CO and HCO+ lines and in both L1544 and L694-2, which leads to estimate a mass infall rate of ~20 M◉ Myr-1. Our analysis suggests that our targets are at a stage where the gravitational contraction dominates the mass accretion through the surrounding filamentary cloud. This is consistent with the fact that our targets are highly evolved prestellar cores on a verge of star formation. More detailed results will be presented at the meeting.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.48.4-49
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• 2015

Stellar spiral arms and magnetic fields in disk galaxies are important in the formation of gaseous structures such as spurs/feathers and wiggles as well as in angular momentum transport between stars and gas. We present our recent results of global magnetohydrodynamic simulations to study nonlinear responses of self-gravitating and magnetized gas to an imposed stellar spiral potential. We vary the arm strength, the arm pattern speed, and magnetic field strength to explore various galactic situations. Magnetic fields not only reduce the peak density of galactic spiral shocks but also make angular momentum transport more efficient via magnetic pressure and tension forces. The extent and shapes of gaseous arms as well as the radial mass drift rate depend rather sensitively on the magnetic field strength. The wiggle instability apparent in unmagnetized models is suppressed with increasing magnetic field strength, while magnetic fields promote the development of magneto-Jeans instability of the arms and magnetic islands in between arms. We quantify the angular momentum transport by spiral shocks, focusing on the effects of magnetic fields. We also present physical interpretations of our numerical results and discuss astronomical implications of our findings.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.29-31
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• 2017

We plan to produce a faint source catalogue from the AKARI mid-infrared (IR) all-sky diffuse maps. In the publicly-available AKARI mid-IR point source catalogue (PSC), sources were extracted from single-scan images, and confirmed by using the other scan images. By stacking multiple scan images, we can detect fainter sources which are not listed in the PSC. We optimized the source extraction process using a $6^{\circ}{\times}6^{\circ}C$ area around the star-forming region, Cepheus B. Then, we divided the all-sky data into three seasonal images, and checked the positions and the fluxes of the detected sources on the images. As a result, our new source extraction method works well; 90% of the sources are also identified in the WISE catalogue. In this method, we obtain the detection limit twice deeper than that of the PSC. The number of sources increases by a factor of 2, as compared with the PSC.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.87-91
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• 2017

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are considered to be carriers of the unidentified infrared bands, which are ubiquitously observed in the Universe. PAHs are mainly formed around evolved carbon-rich stars and injected into interstellar space. Planetary nebulae (PNe), a late stage of low- and intermediate stellar mass evolution, are suitable objects to investigate the formation and evolution of PAHs. The shortest PAH feature is located in $3.3{\mu}m$, which is important to examine the excitation and size distribution of PAHs. While the number of samples had been limited before, the high sensitivity of AKARI /IRC has drastically increased the number of samples. We obtained the $2-5{\mu}m$ spectra of Galactic PNe with AKARI /IRC and compiled a near-infrared spectral catalog, containing 73 PNe. We investigate the detection rate and the evolution of the PAH features. The characteristics of the catalog are illustrated and the origin of the evolution of the PAH features is discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 1996

We have examined consequences of strong tidal encounters between a neutron star and a normal star using SPH as a possible formation mechanism of isolated recycled pulsars in globular clusters. We have made a number of SPH simulations for close encounters between a main-sequence star of mass ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 $M_\bigodot$ represented by an n=3/2 poly trope and a neutron star represented by a point mass. The outcomes of the first encounters are found to be dependent only on the dimensionless parameter $\eta'{\equiv}(m/(m+ M))^{1/2}(\gamma_{min}/R_{MS})^{3/2}(m/M)^{{1/6)}$, where m and M are the mass of the main-sequence star and the neutron star, respectively, $\gamma_{min}$ the minimum separation between two stars, and $R_{MS}$ the size of the main-sequence star. The material from the (at least partially) disrupted star forms a disk around the neutron star. If all material in the disk is to be acctreted onto the neutron star's surface, the mass of the disk is enough to spin up the neutron star to spin period of 1 ms.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.55.1-55.1
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• 2014

on the observation with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini-South 8.1 m telescope. The radial velocities of four ESCs do not display any sign of systematic motion, unlike the intermediate age carbon stars in NGC 6822. The ages and metallicities derived using the Lick indices show that the ESCs are old (>=8 Gyr) and metal poor ([Fe/H] <= -1.5). NGC 6822 is found to have both metal poor ($[Fe/H]{\approx}-2.0$) and metal rich ($[Fe/H]{\approx}-0.9$) star clusters within 15' (2 kpc) from the center, whereas only metal poor clusters are observed in the outer halo with r >= 20'(2.6 kpc). Based on the kinematics, old ages, and low metallicities of ESCs, we discuss the possible origin of ESCs and the formation of the outer halo of a small dwarf irregular galaxy NGC6822.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.47.1-47.1
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• 2014

The calcium infrared triplet (CaT) is one of the prominent absorption features in the infrared wavelength regime. Recently, this absorption feature has been getting attention in the prediction of metallicity of stellar populations because of its strong sensitivity to the calcium abundance and metallicity of a star. However, we find that measuring metallicity directly from CaT is very dangerous because the formation mechanism of CaT is very inefficient in the cool stars which are abundant in metal-rich populations. This characteristics of CaT make the CaT-metallicity relation to converge around ~ $8{\AA}$ in the metal-rich regime. Our results suggest that, because of the converging CaT-metallicity relation in the metal-rich regime, the metallicity of simple stellar populations greater than [Fe/H]~-0.5 is unreliable when the linear conversion between CaT and metallicity is applied to derive metallicity. Based on these results, we suggest that CaT is not a good metallicity indicator for the metal-rich stellar populations.