• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.51.1-51.1
• /
• 2011

Red dusty Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are suspected to mid-stage between ULIRG and AGN phase. As well as, red AGNs are suspected that they have more than 50% of whole AGN population. In order to understand the character of red AGNs, Black Hole (BH) mass of red AGN is a key property and can not measured by existing method such as reverberation mapping and single epoch method. Thus we still don't know their character and properties in clearly. To estimate properties of red AGNs without the effect of dust-obscuration, we have obtained Near InfraRed (NIR) spectra of 31 reverberation mapped AGNs and 49 Palomar-Green(PG) Quasi-Stellar Object (QSO) by using the infrared camera (IRC) for AKARI with unique wavelength range $2.5-5.0{\mu}m$. From this spectra, we measured the FWHM and luminosity of brackett ${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$ at 4.0, 2.6 micron meter for deriving new BH mass estimators based on the properties of Brackett line emission.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.73.1-73.1
• /
• 2017

Reverberation mapping is one of the best way to investigate structure and kinematics of broad-line regions around central supermassive black holes of active galactic nuclei (AGN). It is usually used to estimate masses of supermassive black holes. So far, reverberation mapping studies have achieved good results for dozens of AGN by spectroscopic monitoring. However, spectroscopic monitoring is time consuming and high cost. Here, we present result of photometric reverberation mapping with medium-band observation. We monitored five nearby AGN which are already studied, have short time-lag, and show bright H-alpha emission lines. Observation has been performed for ~3 months with ~3 days cadence using three medium-band filters installed in LSGT (Lee Sang Gak Telescope). We found 0.01-0.06 magnitude variations by differential photometry. Also time-lags between continuum light-curves and H-alpha emission line light-curves are calculated using Javelin software. The result shows that our study and previous studies are consistent within uncertainty range. From verification of availability in this study, photometric reverberation mapping could be used as a powerful tool to measure central supermassive black holes for large samples and high-redshift AGN in the future.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.48 no.5
• /
• pp.277-284
• /
• 2015

We present our efforts for extending the simultaneous multi-frequency receiver system of the Korean Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network (KVN) to global baselines in order to measure the frequency-dependent position shifts in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) jets, the so called core shift effect, with an unprecedented accuracy (a few micro-arcseconds). Millimeter VLBI observations with simultaneous multi-frequency receiver systems, like those of the KVN, enable us to explore the innermost regions of AGN and high precision astrometry. Such a system is capable of locating the frequency dependent opacity changes accurately. We have conducted the feasibility test-observations with the interested partners by implementing the KVN-compatible systems. Here we describe the science case for measuring the core shift effect in the AGN jet and report progress and future plans on extending the simultaneous multi-frequency system to global baselines.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.247-258
• /
• 2023

Studying the accretion phenomena provides a window into understanding most heavenly bodies, from the birth of stars to active galactic nuclei (AGN). We would adopt the effect of the radiation pressure, which reduces accretion rates (Ṁ), on the accretion phenomena. The Shakura-Sunyaev α-disk model of disk accretion is a good candidate theory of advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF). Reduction in the angular velocity leads to the suppression the disk luminosity and surface temperature, essentially indicating the transition of the standard accretion disk model from convection dominated accretion flow (CDAF) to ADAF.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.48.2-48.2
• /
• 2012

We present preliminary results of a statistical study on the nuclear activity of compact group galaxies. What triggers Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) is still a puzzling problem. One of the suggested AGN triggering mechanisms is galaxy-galaxy interaction. Many simulations have shown that gas can be supplied to the center of galaxies during galaxy encounters. In this regard, compact groups of galaxies are an ideal laboratory for studying the connection between galaxy interaction and nuclear activity because of their high densities and low velocity dispersions. We study the environmental dependence of the activity in galactic nuclei using 59 compact groups in the SDSS DR6. Using the emission line data, we classify galaxies in the compact groups. We find that 19% of the compact group galaxies are pure star-forming nuclei, 10% as transition objects, and only 7% of the galaxies in compact groups show the nuclear activity. The AGN fraction of compact group is higher than galaxy clusters, but lower than field environment. Implications of this result will be discussed.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.265-270
• /
• 2012

Many observations have found evidence of the presence of a large number of heavily obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). However, the nature of this population is only poorly understood because heavy obscuration by dust prevents one from finding them at optical wavelengths. Mid-infrared AGN searches can overcome this obstacle by penetrating through dust and by detecting direct emission from the dust torus. Thus, we can identify most of the AGN population, including type-2 and buried AGNs. Using the AKARI mid-infrared all-sky survey, we performed an AGN search in the nearby universe. Utilizing the 2MASS photometry, we selected mid-infrared-excess sources and carried out near-infrared spectroscopic observations in the AKARI Phase 3. During these follow-up observations, we have found three galaxies that show strong near-infrared red continuum from hot dust with a temperature of about 500 K, but do not show any AGN features in other wavelengths. The most suitable explanation of near-infrared continuum is the presence of central AGNs. Therefore, we conclude that they are AGNs obscured by dust. We performed X-ray observations of the two galaxies with SUZAKU. No detections in the 0.4-10 keV suggest that the column density may be much higher than $N_H=10^{23.5}cm^{-2}$. Comparing the masses of the host galaxies with those of the SDSS AGNs, we find that the host galaxies of the dusty AGNs discovered with AKARI are less massive populations than those of optically selected AGNs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.33.2-34
• /
• 2016

The unification model of active galactic nuclei invokes the presence of a thick molecular torus that hides the broad emission line region from a line of sight toward observers with low latitude. It is expected that the illuminated side of the molecular torus may be photodissociated by strong far UV radiation from the central AGN, forming an H I region with a high neutral column density. We propose that the Rayleigh scattering optical depth of this HI region can be significant for most broad $Ly{\alpha}$ line photons with the Doppler factor not exceeding 104 km s-1. Rayleigh scattered $Ly{\alpha}$ photons can be characterized by strong linear polarization depending on their scattering optical depth. We performed Monte Carlo simulations of polarized radiative transfer of $Ly{\alpha}$ adopting simple scattering geometries relevant to the unification model of AGN. We find that for a low torus the Rayleigh scattered $Ly{\alpha}$ is polarized in the direction parallel to the symmetry axis with the polarization degree dependent on wavelength. In the case of a high torus, the core part of $Ly{\alpha}$ is polarized in the direction perpendicular to the symmetry axis whereas the wing part is parallelly polarized. We conclude that careful spectropolarimetry around $Ly{\alpha}$ can be useful in testing the AGN unification model.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.36.2-36.2
• /
• 2019

Fe II emission is a prominent and ubiquitous feature in the spectra of broad-line Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) by producing a pseudo-continuum from UV to optical with complex and strong blends of the numerous emission lines themselves, other emission lines, and continuum. Since theoretical modeling of such intricate Fe II emission is very difficult and still far from able to reproduce observed data in detail, an empirical iron emission template, derived from observations of a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy, is an essential and practical tool to obtain accurate measurements of all the emission lines and continuum in AGN spectra. However, the existing iron templates, based on the single prototypical strong Fe II emitter I Zw 1, are suffering from inadequate S/N and non-simultaneous, inconsistent data with limited wavelength coverage, which consequently limit the accuracy of all the spectral measurements. To overcome the limitations and construct an improved iron template with wide spectral coverage, high-quality UV and optical spectra for the new and better identified template galaxy, Mrk 493, were successfully obtained from our HST STIS program (GO-14744). We will show the preliminary results for multicomponent spectral decomposition of the data and template construction with application tests to various AGN spectra and comparison with previous templates.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.39.1-39.1
• /
• 2021

In this presentation, study of the energetic astronomical phenomena, active galactic nucleus (AGN) and gravitational wave (GW) source, with time-series observation will be reported. They emit large amounts of energy and play an important role in the history of the Universe. First, intra-night variability of AGNs is studied using Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet). Second topic is photometric reverberation mapping which is applied for 11 AGNs with medium-bands and Lee Sang Gak Telescope. Last, three gravitational wave events were followed-up by various optical telescopes. Each topic will be specifically addressed in the presentation.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.32 no.1
• /
• pp.193-195
• /
• 2017

We demonstrate the luminosity dependence of the covering factor (CF) of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), based on AKARI mid-infrared all-sky survey catalog. Combining the AKARI with Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectroscopic data, we selected 243 galaxies at $9{\mu}m$ and 255 galaxies at $18{\mu}m$. We then identified 64 AGNs at $9{\mu}m$ and 105 AGNs at $18{\mu}m$ by their optical emission lines. Following that, we estimated the CF as the fraction of type 2 AGN in all AGNs. We found that the CF decreased with increasing $18{\mu}m$ luminosity, regardless of the choice of type 2 AGN classification criteria.