• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.149-172
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• 2022

We present a new method which constructs an Hɪ super-profile of a galaxy which is based on profile decomposition analysis. The decomposed velocity profiles of an Hɪ data cube with an optimal number of Gaussian components are co-added after being aligned in velocity with respect to their centroid velocities. This is compared to the previous approach where no prior profile decomposition is made for the velocity profiles being stacked. The S/N improved super-profile is useful for deriving the galaxy's global Hɪ properties like velocity dispersion and mass from observations which do not provide sufficient surface brightness sensitivity for the galaxy. As a practical test, we apply our new method to 64 high-resolution Hɪ data cubes of nearby galaxies in the local Universe which are taken from THINGS and LITTLE THINGS. In addition, we also construct two additional Hɪ super-profiles of the sample galaxies using symmetric and all velocity profiles of the cubes whose centroid velocities are determined from Hermite h3 polynomial fitting, respectively. We find that the Hɪ super-profiles constructed using the new method have narrower cores and broader wings in shape than the other two super-profiles. This is mainly due to the effect of either asymmetric velocity profiles' central velocity bias or the removal of asymmetric velocity profiles in the previous methods on the resulting Hɪ super-profiles. We discuss how the shapes (𝜎_n/𝜎_b, A_n/A_b, and A_n/A_tot) of the new Hɪ super-profiles which are measured from a double Gaussian fit are correlated with star formation rates of the sample galaxies and are compared with those of the other two super-profiles.

• 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.46 no.2
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• pp.49.1-49.1
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• 2021

We carried out simultaneous monitoring observations of five maser lines, H₂O (22 GHz), SiO 𝝊 =1, 2, J =1-0 (43.1, 42.8 GHz), and SiO 𝝊 =1, J=2-1, J =3-2 (86.2, 129.3 GHz), toward the Mira variable star WX Serpentis with the 21-m antennas of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) in 2009-2021 (~12 years). Most spectra of the H₂O maser are well separated into two parts of two blue- and one redshifted features within ± 10 km s-1 of the stellar velocity. All detected SiO masers are generally concentrated within ± 5 km s-1 of the stellar velocity, and sometimes appear split into two components. Overall, the profiles of SiO and H₂O masers detected in WX Serpentis illustrate typical characteristics of the Mira variable. In addition, flux variations of both SiO and H₂O masers are well correlated with the optical light curve of the central star, showing a phase lag of ~ 0.1 for SiO masers and ~ 0.2 for H₂O maser. This phenomenon is considered to be the direct effect of propagating shock waves generated by the stellar pulsation, because SiO and H₂O masers are sequentially distributed at different positions with respect to the central star. In addition, we analyzed long-term trends and characteristics of maser velocities, maser ratio, and the velocity extents (the full width at zero power; FWZP). We also investigated a spectral energy distribution (SED) ranging from 1.2 to 240 ㎛ obtained using several infrared data: 2MASS, WISE, IRAS, ISO, COBE DIBRE, RAFGL, and AKARI (IRC and FIS). From the IRAS LRS and ISO SWS spectra of this star, we identified 9.7 and 12 ㎛ silicate emission features consistent with the SE6 spectrum model, corresponding to the typical AGB phase.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.76.3-77
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• 2021

GMT secondary mirror system consists of 7 segmented adaptive mirrors. Each segment consists of a thin shell mirror, actuators and a reference body. The thin shell has a few millimeters of thickness so that it can be easily bent by push and pull force of actuators to compensate the wavefront disturbance of light due to air turbulence. The one end of actuator is supported by the reference body and the other end is adapted to this thin shell. One of critical role of the reference body is to provide the reference surface for the thin shell actuators. Therefore, the reference body is one of key components to succeed in development of GMT ASM. Recently, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) and University of Arizona (UA) has signed a contract that they will cooperate to develop the first set of off-axis reference body for GMT ASM. This project started August 2021 and will be finished in Dec. 2022. The reference body has total 675 holes to accommodate actuators and 144 pockets for lightweighting. The rear surface has a curved rib shape with radius of curvature of 4387 mm with offset of 128.32mm. Since this reference body is placed just above the thin shell so that the front surface shape needs to be close to that of thin shell. The front surface has a concave off-axis asphere, of which radius of curvature is 4165.99 mm and off-axis distance is about 1088 mm. The material is Zerodur CTE class 1 (CTE=0.05 ppm/oC) from SCHOTT. All the actuator holes and pockets are machined normal to the front surface. It is a very complex challenging optical elements that involves sophisticated machining process as well as accurate metrology. After finishing the fabrication of reference body in KRISS, it will be shipped to UA for final touches and finally sent to Adoptica in Italy, in early 2023. This paper presets the development plan for the GMT ASM Reference Body and relevant fabrication and metrology plans.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.69.2-69.2
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• 2019

To construct a coronal force-free magnetic field, we must impose the boundary normal current density (or three components of magnetic field) as well as the boundary normal field at the photosphere as boundary conditions. The only method that is known to implement these boundary conditions exactly is the method devised by Grad and Rubin (1958). However, the Grad-Rubin method and all its variations (including the fluxon method) suffer from convergence problems. The magnetofrictional method and its variations are more robust than the Grad-Rubin method in that they at least produce a certain solution irrespective of whether the global solution is compatible with the imposed boundary conditions. More than often, the influence of the boundary conditions does not reach beyond one or two grid planes next to the boundary. We have found that the 2D solenoidal gauge condition for vector potentials allows us to implement the required boundary conditions easily and effectively. The 2D solenoidal condition is translated into one scalar function. Thus, we need two scalar functions to describe the magnetic field. This description is quite similar to the Chandrasekhar-Kendall representation, but there is a significant difference between them. In the latter, the toroidal field has both Laplacian and divergence terms while in ours, it has only a 2D Laplacian term. The toroidal current density is also expressed by a 2D Laplacian. Thus, the implementation of boundary normal field and current are straightforward and their effect can permeate through the whole computational domain. In this paper, we will give detailed math involved in this formulation and discuss possible lateral and top boundary conditions and their meanings.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.64.1-64.1
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• 2019

The first high-resolution spectroscopic and new multiband photometric observations of the semi-detached Algol type binary XZ CMi were performed at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO) and the Sobaeksan Optical Astronomy Observatory (SOAO), respectively. A total of 34 spectra were obtained using the 1.8 m reflector of the BOAO equipped with the Bohyunsan Optical Echelle Spectrograph to construct the radial velocity (RV) curves of the eclipsing pair. New BVRI photometric light curves were also covered by using the SOAO 61cm reflector and a CCD camera. A detailed analysis of all eclipse timings shows that the orbital period of XZ CMi has varied in an upward parabolic variation superposed on a sinusoidal oscillation with a period of 38.0 yr and a semi-amplitude of 0.0071 days. From the spectral analysis, the effective temperature and the projected rotational velocity of the primary component were determined to be T_eff,1 = 7387±161 K and v₁sini = 122±6 km s^-1, respectively. Our simultaneous synthesis of the double-lined RV and BVRI light curves gives the reliable system parameters of XZ CMi with a mass ratio (q) of 0.314, an orbital inclination (i) of 81.9 deg and a large temperature difference (∆T) of 2481 K. The individual masses and radii of both components are M₁ = 1.91±0.08M_⊙, M₂ = 0.60±0.02M_⊙, R₁ = 1.60±0.02R_⊙, R₂ = 1.13±0.02R_⊙, respectively. Although the primary component is located inside the δ Sct and γ Dor instability strips, no evidence of pulsation in the system was detected. The possible evolutionary status of XZ CMi is discussed.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.37.3-38
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• 2020

Ever since thick disk was proposed to explain the vertical distribution of the Milky Way disk stars, its origin has been a recurrent question. We aim to answer this question by inspecting 19 disk galaxies with stellar mass greater than 10^10 solar mass in recent cosmological high-resolution (>34 pc) zoom-in simulations: Galactica and New Horizon. The thin and thick disks are reproduced by the simulations with scale heights and luminosity ratios that are in reasonable agreement with observations. When we spatially classify the disk stars into thin and thick disks by their heights from the galactic plane, the "thick" disk stars are older, less metal-rich, kinematically hotter, and higher in accreted star fraction than the "thin" disk counterparts. However, we found that the the thick disk stars were spatially and kinematically thinner when they were born. Indeed, a large fraction of thick disk stars was born near the galactic plane at earlier times and get heated with time, eventually occupying high altitudes and exhibiting different population properties compared to the thin-disk stars. In conclusion, from our simulations, the thin and thick disk components are not entirely distinct at birth, but rather a result of the time evolution of the stars born in the main disk of the galaxy. (excerpted from the abstract of the upcoming paper submitted to Astrophysical Journal: Park, M.-J., Yi, S.K. et al. 2020)

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.46.3-47
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• 2020

Variations in the brightness of asteroids are caused by their spins, irregular shapes and companions. Thus, in principle, the spin state and shape model of a single object or, a combined model of spins, shapes and mutual orbit of a multiple components can be constructed from the analysis of light curves obtained from the time-series photometry. Using ground- and space-based facilities, a number of time-series photometric observations of asteroids have been conducted to find the possible causes of their light variations. Nonetheless, only about 2% of the known asteroids have been confirmed for their rotation periods. Therefore, a follow-on systematic photometric survey of asteroids is essential. We started an asteroid light curve survey for this purpose using Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) during 199 nights between the second half of 2019 and the first half of 2020. We monitored within a 2° × 14° region of the sky per each night with 25 min cadences. In order to observe as many asteroids as possible with a single exposure, we mostly focus on the ecliptic plane. In our survey, 25,925 asteroids were observed and about 8,000 of them were confirmed for their rotation periods. In addition, using KMTNet's 24-hour continuous monitoring, we collected many composite light curves of slow rotating asteroids that were rarely obtained with previous observations. In this presentation, we will introduce the typical light curves of asteroids obtained from our survey and present a statistical analysis of spin states and shapes of the asteroids from this study.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

We present the photometric properties of V608 Cas from detailed studies of light curves and eclipse timings. The light curve synthesis indicates that the eclipsing pair is an overcontact binary with parameters of ∆T = 155 K, q = 0.328, and f = 26%. We detected the third light ℓ₃, which corresponds to about 8% and 5% of the total systemic light in V and R bands, respectively. Including our 6 timing measurements, a total of 38 times of minimum light were used for a period study. It was found that the orbital period of V608 Cas has varied in some combination of an upward parabola and two periodic variations. The continuous period increase with a rate of +3.99 × 10^-7 d yr^-1 can be interpreted as a mass transfer from the secondary component to the primary star at a rate of 1.51 × 10^-7 M_⊙ yr^-1. The periods and semi-amplitudes of the two periodic variations are about P₃ = 16.0 yr and P₄ = 26.3 yr, and K₃ = 0.0341 d and K₄ = 0.0305 d, respectively. The most likely explanation of both cycles is a pair of light-traveling time effects operated by the possible presence of third and fourth components with estimated masses of M₃ = 2.20 M_⊙ and M₄ = 1.27 M_⊙ in eccentric orbits of e₃ = 0.66 and e₄ = 0.52. Because the contribution of ℓ₃ is very low compared to the estimated masses of two circumbinary objects, they can be inferred as very faint compact objects.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.71.1-71.1
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• 2013

Among quadruples or higher multiplicity stars, only a few binary systems have been discovered. They are important targets to understand the formation and evolution of multiple stellar systems because we can obtain accurate stellar parameters from photometric and spectroscopic studies. We present the observational results of this kind of rare object 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5, for which the doubly eclipsing feature had been detected previously from the SuperWASP photometric archive. Individual PSF photometry for two objects with a separation of about 1.9 arcsec was performed for the first time in this study. Our time-series photometric data show that the brighter object A is an Algol-type detached eclipsing binary with an orbital period of 1.3 days and the fainter B is a W UMa-type contact eclipsing binary with a period of 0.23 days. Using the high-resolution optical spectra, we obtained well-defined radial velocity variations of the system A. Furthermore, stationary spectral lines were detected and should have originated from the other stellar component, which was confirmed by the third object contribution from the light curve analysis. No spectral feature of the system B was detected, probably due to its faintness. We obtained the binary parameters and the absolute dimensions from each light curve synthesis. The primary and secondary components of the system A have a spectral type of K1 and K5 main sequences, respectively. Two components of system B have nearly the same type of K3 main sequence. Light variations at out of eclipses were appeared in both systems, interpreting as the effect of stellar spots on these late spectral type stars. We estimated the distances to the systems A and B individually. They may have similar distances of about 70 pc and seem to be gravitationally bound with a separation of about 130 AU. In conclusion, we suggest that 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5 is a quintuple stellar system with a hierarchical structure of a triple system A(ab)c and a binary system B(ab).