• 천문학회보
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• 제44권1호
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• pp.49.1-49.1
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• 2019

Giant radio relics in the outskirts of galaxy clusters have been observed and they are interpreted as synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons accelerated via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) in weak shocks of Ms < 3.0. In the DSA theory, the particle momentum should be greater than a few times the momentum of thermal protons to cross the shock transition and participate in the Fermi acceleration process. In the equilibrium, the momentum of thermal electrons is much smaller than the momentum of thermal protons, so electrons need to be pre-accelerated before they can go through DSA. To investigate such electron injection process, we study the electron pre-acceleration in weak quasi-perpendicular shocks (Ms = 2.0 - 3.0) in an ICM plasma (kT = 8.6 keV, beta = 100) through 2D particle-in-cell simulations. It is known that in quasi-perpendicular shocks, a substantial fraction of electrons could be reflected upstream, gain energy via shock drift acceleration (SDA), and generate oblique waves via the electron firehose instability (EFI), leading the energization of electrons through wave-particle interactions. We find that such kinetic processes are effective only in supercritical shocks above a critical Mach number, $Ms{\ast}{\sim}2.3$. In addition, even in shocks with Ms > 2.3, energized electrons may not reach high energies to be injected to DSA, because the oblique EFI alone fails to generate long-wavelength waves. Our results should have implications for the origin and nature of radio relics.

• 천문학회지
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• 제54권3호
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• pp.103-112
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• 2021

The intracluster medium (ICM) is expected to experience on average about three passages of weak shocks with low sonic Mach numbers, M ≲ 3, during the formation of galaxy clusters. Both protons and electrons could be accelerated to become high energy cosmic rays (CRs) at such ICM shocks via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA). We examine the effects of DSA by multiple shocks on the spectrum of accelerated CRs by including in situ injection/acceleration at each shock, followed by repeated re-acceleration at successive shocks in the test-particle regime. For simplicity, the accelerated particles are assumed to undergo adiabatic decompression without energy loss and escape from the system, before they encounter subsequent shocks. We show that in general the CR spectrum is flattened by multiple shock passages, compared to a single episode of DSA, and that the acceleration efficiency increases with successive shock passages. However, the decompression due to the expansion of shocks into the cluster outskirts may reduce the amplification and flattening of the CR spectrum by multiple shock passages. The final CR spectrum behind the last shock is determined by the accumulated effects of repeated re-acceleration by all previous shocks, but it is relatively insensitive to the ordering of the shock Mach numbers. Thus multiple passages of shocks may cause the slope of the CR spectrum to deviate from the canonical DSA power-law slope of the current shock.

• 천문학회보
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• 제35권2호
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• pp.27.1-27.1
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• 2010

Globular cluster (GC) systems in most galaxies, particularly in ellipticals, show bimodal color distributions. Because broadband colors trace metallicity at old ages, this phenomenon has been commonly interpreted as bimodal metallicity distributions, implying the presence of two sub-populations in the globular cluster system within a galaxy. However, a new explanation has recently been proposed, in which the non-linear nature of color-metallicity relations induced by horizontal-branch stars can produce bimodal color distributions even from unimodal metallicity distributions. In this study, we put these two explanations to the test on the origin of color bimodality, using multi-band (U,B,V and I) photometry of globular clusters in NGC 1399, the central giant elliptical galaxy in Fornax galaxy cluster. We find significant changes in the morphology of color distributions when using different colors. The observation is also well reproduced by the Monte Carlo realization of GC color when a unimodal metallicity distribution and the theoretical non-linear color-metallicity relations are assumed. We discuss the implications regarding theories on galaxy formation and evolution.

• 천문학회보
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• 제39권2호
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• pp.62.1-62.1
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• 2014

Metallicity distribution of globular clusters (GCs) provides an important clue for star formation history of their host galaxy. With an assumption that GCs are generally old, GC colors have been used as a proxy of GC metallicities. Bimodal GC color distributions observed in most large galaxies have, for decades, been interpreted as bimodal metallicity distributions, indicating the presence of two populations within a galaxy. However, the conventional view has been challenged by a new theory that non-linear GC color-metallicity relations (CMRs) can cause a bimodal color distribution even from a single-peaked metallicity distribution. Using the photometric and spectroscopic data of NGC 5128 GCs in combination with stellar population simulation models, we examine the effect of non-linearity in GC CMRs on the transformation of GC color distributions into metallicity distributions. Although, in some colors, offsets are present between observations and models in the CMRs, their overall shape agrees well for various colors. After the offsets are corrected, the observed spectroscopic metallicity distribution is well reproduced via modeled CMRs from various color distributions having different morphologies. On the other hand, the linearly converted metallicity distributions from GC colors show a significant discrepancy with the observed spectroscopic metallicity distribution. We discuss the implications of our results.

• 천문학회보
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• 제36권2호
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• pp.143.1-143.1
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• 2011

Deep Ca,b,y images obtained from the CTIO 4m Blaco telescope are used to investigate the multiple stellar populations of red giant branch (RGB) and sub-giant branch (SGB) in Galactic globular clusters NGC 6656 and NGC 6723. For NGC 6656, confirming the result of Lee et al. (2009), we find two discrete populations of the RGB stars of which mean color separation is about 0.2 mag in hk[=(Ca-b)-(b-y)] index. Furthermore, we also find the bimodel distribution of the SGB stars in (hk, y) color-magnitude diagram. A new finding is that the (hk, y) color-magnitude diagram of NGC 6723 shows two distinct RGB stars with different calcium abundances of which mean color separation is about 0.12 mag in hk index. This multiple stellar feature has not been observed in previous observation, suggesting that NGC 6723 may also be a possible relic of dwarf galaxies that merged into the Milky Way in the past. Thus our result adds further constraints to the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation. Unfortunately, the split of SGB stars in NGC 6723 is not obvious. We will present some statistical results to compare properties of two populations in two clusters.

• 천문학회보
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.57.3-57.3
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• 2015

We present a test observation result of the KMTNet Intensive Nearby Southern Galaxy group Survey (KINGS). The KINGS is designed to study nearby galaxy groups (NGC 55, NGC 253, NGC 5128, and M83 groups), taking the advantage of the wide field coverage of the KMTNet. The main goal of the KINGS is to produce extensive catalogs of dwarf galaxies, ultra compact dwarfs (UCDs), and intraglobular clusters in the galaxy groups. We will also investigate the spatial distribution of intragroup light in each group. We present a progress report of the project based on the test BVI observations of two galaxy groups. We discuss the result from the test observation and possible improvement for future observations.

• 천문학회보
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• 제40권2호
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• pp.50.1-50.1
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• 2015

The origin of globular cluster (GC) color bimodality, which is one of the salient phenomena observed in most large galaxies, has not yet been fully resolved. The phenomenon has conventionally been interpreted as a bimodal metallicity distribution based on an assumption of linear GC color-metallicity relations (CMRs). Recent studies however suggest that nonlinear GC CMRs can cause a bimodal color distribution even from a single-peaked metallicity spread. Using photometric and spectroscopic data on GCs in NGC 5128 (Cen A) and NGC 4594 (Sombrero), we investigate the nonlinearity of GC CMRs and compare the observed GC CMRs with the predictions of stellar population simulation models. Our careful selection of old GCs effectively reduces the scatter and reveals the nonlinear nature of the GC CMRs for various colors. The overall shape of the observed CMRs agrees well with that of the modeled CMRs, while offsets are present for some colors. We discuss the implications of our results in terms of the GC color bimodality and GC formation in NGC 5128 and NGC 4594.

• 천문학회지
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• 제37권5호
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• pp.563-570
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• 2004

Turbulence is a crucial component of dynamics of astrophysical fluids dynamics, including those of ISM, clusters of galaxies and circumstellar regions. Doppler shifted spectral lines provide a unique source of information on turbulent velocities. We discuss Velocity-Channel Analysis (VCA) and its offspring Velocity Coordinate Spectrum (VCS) that are based on the analytical description of the spectral line statistics. Those techniques are well suited for studies of supersonic turbulence. We stress that a great advantage of VCS is that it does not necessary require good spatial resolution. Addressing the studies of mildly supersonic and subsonic turbulence we discuss the criterion that allows to determine whether Velocity Centroids are dominated by density or velocity. We briefly discuss ways of going beyond power spectra by using of higher order correlations as well as genus analysis. We outline the relation between Spectral Correlation Functions and the statistics available through VCA and VCS.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제40권1호
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• pp.29-33
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• 2023

An unexplained acceleration on the order of 10^-8 cm s^-2, which is close to cH, where c is the speed of light and H is the Hubble constant, is detected in gravitationally bound systems of different scales, from the solar system to clusters of galaxies. We found that any test body located inside a fractal structure with fractal dimension D = 2 experiences acceleration of the same order and confirmed the previous work that photons propagating through this structure decrease the frequency owing to gravitational redshift. The acceleration can be directed against the movement of the test body. The fractal distribution of the matter should be at scales of at least hundreds of megaparsecs to a few gigaparsecs for the existence of this acceleration.

• 천문학회지
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• 제31권2호
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• pp.109-115
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• 1998

We show that the low density regions of the matter distribution preserve the properties of the primordial density field better than the high density regions. We have performed a cosmological N-body simulation of large-scale structure formation in the standard CDM cosmology, and studied the evolution of statistics of under-density and over-density regions separately. The rank-order of the under-density regions is closer to the original one compared to that of the over-density regions. The under-density peaks (or voids) has moved less than over-density peaks (or dense clusters of galaxies) from their initial positions. Therefore, the under-density regions are more useful than the over-density regions in the study of the statistical property of the primordial density field.