• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.32.1-32.1
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• 2014

Astronomical observations strongly suggest that the expansion rate of our universe is currently under acceleration. The nature of the so-called dark energy causing the acceleration is unknown, and it is one of the fundamental mysteries in the present day theoretical cosmology. Here we briefly review the current state of cosmic dark energy research in both theoretical and observational sides. Constraints on dynamical dark energy models (e.g., w-fluid, quintessence, and modified gravity) with recent observational data from type Ia supernovae, cosmic microwave background radiation, and large-scale structures in the universe indicate a preferred direction toward the simplest ${\Lambda}$CDM world model. We also discuss some issues regarding the early dark energy model and the spherical collapse of matter in the presence of dark energy.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.93-103
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• 2017

We explore the shock acceleration model for giant radio relics, in which relativistic electrons are accelerated via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) by merger-driven shocks in the outskirts of galaxy clusters. In addition to DSA, turbulent acceleration by compressive MHD modes downstream of the shock are included as well as energy losses of postshock electrons due to Coulomb scattering, synchrotron emission, and inverse Compton scattering off the cosmic background radiation. Considering that only a small fraction of merging clusters host radio relics, we favor a reacceleration scenario in which radio relics are generated preferentially by shocks encountering the regions containing low-energy (${\gamma}_e{\leq}300$) cosmic ray electrons (CRe). We perform time-dependent DSA simulations of spherically expanding shocks with physical parameters relevant for the Sausage radio relic, and calculate the radio synchrotron emission from the accelerated CRe. We find that significant level of postshock turbulent acceleration is required in order to reproduce broad profiles of the observed radio flux densities of the Sausage relic. Moreover, the spectral curvature in the observed integrated radio spectrum can be explained, if the putative shock should have swept up and exited out of the preshock region of fossil CRe about 10 Myr ago.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.19-23
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• 1992

We investigated the "tilting" of the Universe, i.e., a non-Doppler origin of the dipole moment of the cosmic background radiation (CBR). Superhorizon-sized isocurvature, rotational and true vacuum bubble perturbations are considered. We show that the more natural way of the "tilting" the Universe is via the true vacuum bubble perturbation. Nevertheless, due to the small filling fraction of the bubbles of viable extended inflationary models, we find that the probability of the real occurrence in the Universe is quite insignificant.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.42.2-42.2
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• 2010

The possibility of detection of deviation from Gaussian distribution of primordial perturbations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation is very important because it can shed light on how the perturbations were created in the very early universe. We study the effect of the primordal non-Gaussianity on topological observables called Minkowski Functionals, which are functions of the temperature fluctuation field, and show that they carry distinct signatures of different types of non-Gaussianities. Then, we constrain the non-Gaussianity parameters by comparing the theoretical predictions of the Minkowski Functionals with measurements from observational data from WMAP.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.49-67
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• 2014

A novel method to characterize the topology of the early-universe intergalactic medium during the epoch of cosmic reionization is presented. The 21-cm radiation background from high redshift is analyzed through calculation of the 2-dimensional (2D) genus. The radiative transfer of hydrogen- ionizing photons and ionization-rate equations are calculated in a suite of numerical simulations under various input parameters. The 2D genus is calculated from the mock 21-cm images of high-redshift universe. We construct the 2D genus curve by varying the threshold differential brightness temperature, and compare this to the 2D genus curve of the underlying density field. We find that (1) the 2D genus curve reflects the evolutionary track of cosmic reionization and (2) the 2D genus curve can discriminate between certain reionization scenarios and thus indirectly probe the properties of radiation-sources. Choosing the right beam shape of a radio antenna is found crucial for this analysis. Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is found to be a suitable apparatus for this analysis in terms of sensitivity, even though some deterioration of the data for this purpose is unavoidable under the planned size of the antenna core.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.307-313
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• 2004

Clusters of galaxies are believed to constitute a population of astrophysical objects potentially able to emit electromagnetic radiation up to gamma-ray energies. Evidence of the existence of non-thermal radiation processes in galaxy clusters is indicated from observations of diffuse radio halos, hard X-ray and EUV excess emission. The presence of cosmic ray acceleration processes and its confinement on cosmological timescales nearly inevitably yields in predicting energetic gamma-ray emission, either directly deduceably from a cluster's multifreqency emission characteristics or indirectly during large-scale cosmological structure formation processes. This theoretical reasoning suggests several scenarios to actually detect galaxy clusters at gamma-ray wavelengths: Either resolved as individual sources of point-like or extended gamma-ray emission, by investigating spatial-statistical correlations with unidentified gamma-ray sources or, if unresolved, through their contribution to the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background. In the following I review the situation concerning the proposed relation between galaxy clusters and high-energy gamma-ray observations from an observational point-of-view.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.52.1-52.1
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• 2010

The Japanese infrared (IR) space mission AKARI monitored the brightness in the fields very close to the north ecliptic pole (NEP) with nine wavebands in Infrared Camera (IRC), which cover the wavelength range from 2 to $24{\mu}m$. We reduced the NEP monitor observations and examined the smoothness of the sky background brightness. Our analysis shows that the background brightness is smooth over a frame of about $10'\times10'$ within about 0.1% deviation in mid-IR. Because the zodiacal light (ZL) and emission (ZE) dominate the diffuse sky brightness in the near- and mid-IR wavelengths, the background brightness varies with season through a year. We tried sinusoidal fittings to the observed NEP background brightness. The fitting analysis shows that the sine function is successful in describing the seasonal variation of the ZL and ZE within 2% deviations from the observed brightness, especially for the 15, 18, and $24{\mu}m$ bands, within 0.3%. These results will provide limits and caveats for the studies of the cosmic infrared background radiation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.34.1-34.1
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• 2013

The first generation stars in the universe are not observed as discrete objects by using current observational facilities, but their contributions are redshifted to the near infrared wavelength bands at present universe. Therefore, investigation of background radiation at near infrared is important for the study of the first stars. In this study, we present new observations of spatial fluctuations in sky brightness toward the north ecliptic pole using data from AKARI. Among pointed observation program of AKARI, we used two pointing surveys named Monitor field and NEP wide field at three wavelength bands 2.4, 3.2, and 4.1 ${\mu}m$. To obtain spatial fluctuations from observed images, first of all, we exclude pixels affected by resolved foreground objects and then obtain diffuse map which consists of diffused radiation only. Because the diffuse map contains not only cosmological components but also various foreground components, in order to detect cosmological components, we estimate the contributions of foreground components separately. The results of this study show that there remains excess spatial fluctuation that cannot be explained by known foreground sources. This work is based on observations with AKARI, a JAXA project with the participation of ESA.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2013

The first generation stars in the universe are not observed as discrete objects by using current observational facilities, but their contributions are redshifted to the near infrared wavelength bands at present universe. Therefore, investigation of background radiation at near infrared is important for the study of the first stars. In this study, we present new observations of spatial fluctuations in sky brightness toward the north ecliptic pole using data from AKARI. Among pointed observation program of AKARI, we used two pointing surveys named Monitor field and NEP wide field at three wavelength bands 2.4, 3.2, and 4.1 ${\mu}$. To obtain spatial fluctuations from observed images, first of all, we exclude pixels affected by resolved foreground objects and then obtain diffuse map which consists of diffused radiation only. Because the diffuse map contains not only cosmological components but also various foreground components, in order to detect cosmological components, we estimate the contributions of foreground components separately. The results of this study show that there remains excess spatial fluctuation that cannot be explained by known foreground sources. This work is based on observations with AKARI, a JAXA project with the participation of ESA.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.141.1-141.1
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• 2012

CIBER (Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment) is a sounding-rocket borne experiment which is designed to find the evidence of the First stars (Pop.III stars) in the universe. They are expected to be formed between the recombination era at z ~ 1100 and the most distant quasar (z ~ 8). They have never been directly detected due to its faintness so far, but can be observed as a background radiation at around $1{\mu}m$ which is called the Cosmic Near-Infrared Background (CNB). The CIBER is successfully launched on July 10, 2010 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA. It consists of three kinds of instruments. One of them is a LRS (Low Resolution Spectrometer) which is a refractive telescope of 5.5 cm aperture with spectral resolution of 20 ~ 30 and wavelength coverage of 0.7 to $2.0{\mu}m$ to measure the spectrum of the CNB. Since LRS detects not only CNB but also stellar components, we can study their spectral features with the broad band advantage especially at around $1{\mu}m$ which is difficult at ground observations because of the atmospheric absorption by water vapor. I identified around 300 stars from observed six fields. If we can classify their spectral types with SED fitting, we can study their physical conditions of the stellar atmosphere as well as making a stellar catalogue of continuous stellar spectrum.