• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.54 no.1
• /
• pp.17-35
• /
• 2021

We study galaxies undergoing ram pressure stripping in the Virgo cluster to examine whether we can identify any discernible trend in their star formation activity. We first use 48 galaxies undergoing different stages of stripping based on H i morphology, H i deficiency, and relative extent to the stellar disk, from the VIVA survey. We then employ a new scheme for galaxy classification which combines H i mass fractions and locations in projected phase space, resulting in a new sample of 365 galaxies. We utilize a variety of star formation tracers, which include g - r, WISE [3.4]-[12] colors, and starburstiness that are defined by stellar mass and star formation rates to compare the star formation activity of galaxies at different stripping stages. We find no clear evidence for enhancement in the integrated star formation activity of galaxies undergoing early to active stripping. We are instead able to capture the overall quenching of star formation activity with increasing degree of ram pressure stripping, in agreement with previous studies. Our results suggest that if there is any ram pressure stripping induced enhancement, it is at best locally modest, and galaxies undergoing enhancement make up a small fraction of the total sample. Our results also indicate that it is possible to trace galaxies at different stages of stripping with the combination of H i gas content and location in projected phase space, which can be extended to other galaxy clusters that lack high-resolution H i imaging.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.52.1-52.1
• /
• 2017

Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound systems and thus probably the most recent objects to form. One of promising routes to understand the assembly history of galaxy clusters is to measure observable quantities of components in clusters that are sensitive to the evolutionary state of the cluster. Recent deep observations on the nearby clusters show distinct diffuse intracluster light (ICL), that the light from stars are not bound any individual cluster galaxy, however until now this component has not been well studied due to its faint nature, with typical brightness of ~100 times fainter than the sky background. As shown in galaxy cluster simulation studies, the ICL abundance increases during various dynamical exchanges of galaxies such as the disruption of dwarf galaxies, major mergers between galaxies and the tidal stripping of galaxies. Thus, the ICL is an effective tool to measure the evolutionary stage of galaxy clusters. Moreover, the investigation of the ICL evolution mechanism will allow us understand the galaxy evolution process therein. In this pilot study, we target the Coma cluster, where the existing ICL studies are limited only in the central region. With large and uniform deep optical images from the Subaru telescope, available only recently (Okabe et al. 2014), we are developing a robust ICL measurement technique, extracting the ICL surface brightness and color profiles, which will allow us to study the origin of the ICL and its connection to the evolutionary history of the Coma cluster. For the next phase, we plan to utilize the plenty of spectroscopy data from the MMT telescope to compare ICL properties with the star formation history of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCG), and discuss the ICL formation mechanism of the Coma cluster by comparing the distribution of cluster galaxies with the distribution of diffuse light inside the Coma cluster.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.105-108
• /
• 1998

We have found that the two-point correlation function of the APM clusters of galaxies has an amplitude much higher than that claimed by the APM group. As the richness limit increases from R = 53 to 80, the correlation length increases from 17.5 to 28.9 $h^{-1}Mpc$. This indicates that the richness dependence of the APM cluster correlation function is also much stronger than what the APM group has reported. The richness dependence can be represented by a fitting formula ro = 0.53dc + 0.01, which is consistent with the Bahcall's formula ro = 0.4dc. We have tried to find the possible reason for discrepancies. However, our estimates for the APM cluster correlation function are found to be robust against variation of the method of calculation and of sample definition.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.40.1-40.1
• /
• 2010

We present the ultraviolet (UV) properties of early type galaxies (ETGs) in clusters. We obtained a cluster catalogue from Yoon et al.(2008) based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey(SDSS) DR5 in the redshift range of 0.05 < z <0.10. After matching sample galaxies in clusters with Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) GR5, we have classified the morphologies of ETGs by UV-optical colour distributions and investigated them in terms of the ranks in magnitude in a cluster and in clustocentric distance. It has recently been suggested theoretically that brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) show a strong UV upturn than non-BCGs, but we find that the difference between them is not significant. Moreover, to our surprise, it appears that density (environment) does not play any significant role to the UV properties. consequent of internal galaxy processes rather than that of environmental processes.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.72.1-72.1
• /
• 2012

Sheen et al. 2012 reported a high fraction of galaxies with post-merger features in clusters. The fraction is much higher than what analytic calculation predicts based on the fact that subhalos inside galaxy clusters have high relative velocities. In this study, we aim to address the origin of the post-merger features and to draw an implication for the assembly history of the cluster galaxies. We have performed high-resolution hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations on a cluster of ~1015M using the publicly available Adaptive Mesh Refinements (AMR) code, RAMSES. From the simulations, we have constructed mock images of cluster galaxies taking into account age, metallicity, mass of stellar populations and extinction. The mock images enable us to directly compare the simulation result with deep observation data of cluster galaxies. We discuss possible scenarios for the origin of the post-merger features. We also discuss caveats and future perspectives from the study.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.38.1-38.1
• /
• 2019

The formation and evolution of galaxies is known to be fundamentally linked to the local environment in which they reside. In the highest-density cluster environments, galaxies tend to be more massive, have lower star formation rates and dust content, and a higher fraction have elliptical morphologies. The stellar populations of these cluster galaxies are older implying that they formed the bulk of their stars much earlier and have since evolved passively. Quantifying the specific environmental factors that contribute to shaping cluster galaxies over the Hubble time and measuring their early evolution can only be accomplished by directly tracing the galaxy growth in young clusters and forming porto-clusters. In this talk, I will present a novel technique designed to map out the total dust obscured star formation relative to where existing stars lie. I will demonstrate that this technique can be used 1) to determine if/where/when the activity is heightened or suppressed in dense cluster environment; 2) to measure the total mass and spatial distribution of stellar populations; and 3) to better inform theoretical models. Our ongoing work to extend this analysis out to protoclusters (z~2-4) will be discussed.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.409-411
• /
• 2015

Galaxy clusters, the largest gravitationally bound systems, are an important subject of study to place constraints on cosmological models. Moreover, they are excellent places to test galaxy evolution models in connection to their environments. To date, massive clusters have been found unexpectedly (Kang & Im 2009; Gonzales et al. 2012) and the evolution of galaxies in clusters is still controversial (Elbaz et al. 2007; Faloon et al. 2013). Finding galaxy cluster candidates at z > 1 in a wide, deep imaging survey data will enable us to solve such issues of modern extragalactic astronomy. We report new candidate galaxy clusters in one of the wide and deep survey fields, the European Large Area ISO Survey North1 (ELAIS-N1) and North2 (ELAIS-N2) fields, covering a sky area of $8.75deg^2$ and $4.85deg^2$ each. We also suggest a new useful color selection technique to separate z > 1 galaxies from low - z galaxies by combining multi-wavelength data.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.2
• /
• pp.48.2-48.2
• /
• 2015

Galaxy Clusters with complex inner structures are excellent laboratories with which to study the properties of galaxies and the groups of galaxies in them. To execute a systematic search for flux-limited galaxy groups and clusters based on the spectroscopic galaxies with r < 17.77 of SDSS data release 12, we adopt a modified version of the friends-of-friends algorithm, whereupon a total of 3272 galaxy groups and clusters with at least 10 members are found. In this study, we aim to assign galaxy subgroups within groups and clusters that enable us to investigate the detained star-formation history of galaxies by applying a modified hierarchical grouping method to our galaxy group and cluster catalog. We note that roughly 70% of our galaxy groups and clusters have subgroups. The most remarkable additional results are as follows. The brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) have brighter luminosities with larger velocity dispersions of groups and clusters. The BCGs are concentrated toward the most massive subgroups than the second and third one. This result implies that the galaxy properties can be affected by different merger and star-formation histories for differing environments.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.68.2-68.2
• /
• 2021

Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe located at the top of the cosmological hierarchical model, so the evolution of the universe can be understood by studying clusters of galaxies. Therefore, finding a larger number of galaxy clusters plays an important role in exploring how the universe evolves. A large number of catalogs for galaxy clusters in the northern sky have been published; however, there are few catalogs in the southern sky due to the lack of wide sky survey data. KMTNet Synoptic Survey of Southern Sky(KS4) project, which observes a wide area of the southern sky about 7000 deg² with KMTNet telescopes for two years, is in progress under the SNU Astronomy Research Center. We use the KS4 multi-wavelength optical data and measure photometric redshifts of galaxies for finding galaxy clusters at redshift z<1. Currently, the KS4 project has observed approximately 50% of the target region, and a pipeline that measures photometric redshifts of galaxies has been created. When the project is completed, we expect to find more than a hundred thousand galaxy clusters, and this will improve the study of galaxy clusters in the southern sky.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.33.3-34
• /
• 2016

We explored the GALEX UV properties of optical red sequence galaxies in 4 rich Abell clusters at z ~ 0.1. In particular, we tried to find a hint of merger-induced recent star formation (RSF) in red sequence galaxies. Based on the NUV - r' colors of the galaxies, about 36% of the post-merger galaxies were classified as RSF galaxies with a conservative criterion (NUV - $r^{\prime}{\leq}5$), and that number was doubled (~ 72%) when using a generous criterion (NUV - $r^{\prime}{\leq}5.4$). Post-merger galaxies with strong UV emission showed more violent, asymmetric features on the deep optical images. Also it turned out that all massive RSF galaxies (Mr' < -22 and NUV - $r^{\prime}{\leq}5$) exhibited post-merger signatures. Our results suggested that only 30% of RSF red sequence galaxies show morphological hints of recent galaxy mergers. This implies that internal processes (e.g., stellar mass-loss or hot gas cooling) for the supply of cold gas to early-type galaxies may play a significant role in the residual star formation of early-type galaxies at a recent epoch.