• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.30.2-30.2
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• 2021

The extended Lyα nebulae (also known as Lyα blobs or LABs) observed at z=2-6 can provide clues to galaxy formation in the early universe. The connection of LABs with the overdensities of compact Lyα emitters suggests that they are associated with matter density peaks in the universe and thus likely to evolve into the present-day groups and clusters of galaxies. However, the mechanism powering the extended Lyα emission in LABs is remained controversial. The detection of polarization signals that follow the theoretically predicted trend is interpreted as strong evidence supporting that the LABs are caused primarily by the resonance scattering of Lyα originating from star-forming galaxies and AGNs. However, Trebitsch et al. (2016) claimed that the radial profile of polarization could be better explained by the scenario in which Lyα photons are produced in the cooling gas surrounding galaxies and then self-scattered by the gas, rather than by the scattering scenario of photons originating from the central galaxies. In this presentation, using LaRT, a state-of-art Lyα radiative transfer code, it is demonstrated that the observed polarization pattern can be reproduced even with the scattering scenario.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.41.1-41.1
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• 2021

Neutral (HI) gas clouds associated with galaxies are responsible for fuelling the star-formation in the universe. In literature, the extremely strong damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (or ESDLAs) have been known to be sensitive to the effects of HI-H2 transition and star-formation in galaxies. Yet, ESDLAs are rare to probe due to the smaller cross section they subtend on the sky (similar to galaxies). In my talk, I will focus primarily on my study of the nature of ESDLAs that are observed as absorption signature along the line-of-sight (LOS) of a quasar (QSO). I will further look at the HI-H2 transition and interesting results relevant to diffuse molecular gas and the multi-phase medium (gas in different ionization states) that are associated with ESDLAs. Furthermore, I will also discuss how the ESDLA environments differ from the high star-forming and molecular environments detected in blind optical and radio surveys consecutively.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.32.2-32.2
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• 2012

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic events in the universe, and are known to arise from the death of massive stars in many cases. Their extreme brightness makes it possible to detect them at very high redshift (z > 6.5), well into the epoch of re-ionization, providing us with an opportunity to investigate the deaths of the first stars when the universe was much younger than 1 Gyr. Here, we report the discovery of GRB 100905A, a GRB at $z$ - 7.5 (age of the universe at 700 Myr). Our observation revealed a strong spectral break between z and J band, allowing us to estimate its photometric redshift. Its gamma-ray light curve shows a very short duration of about 0.7 sec, the shortest duration event at z > 5. Investigation of this and three other known GRBs at z > 6.5 reveals that they are all short duration bursts. This is puzzling, considering that GRBs from death of massive stars do not show short duration. We suggest two possible explanations for this: (i) the BAT light curves of the high redshift GRBs suffered from observational selection effect where we are only observing the very tip of the light curve; (ii) the stars in the early universe had a peculiar nature that are different from ordinary stars at lower redshifts.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.50.1-50.1
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• 2017

We present our study of the correlation between star formation rate(SFR) and merging activities of nearby galaxies(d<150Mpc). Our study uses 265 UV-selected galaxies which are not classified as AGN. The UV selection is made using the GALEX Atlas of Galaxies (Gil de Paz+07) and the updated UV catalog of nearby galaxies (Bai+15). We use deep R band optical images reaching to $1{\sigma}$ surface brightness detection limit ${\sim}27mag/arcsec^2$ to classify merger features by visual inspection. We also estimated unobscured SFR($SFR_{NUV}$) and obscured SFR($SFR_{W4}$) using Near-UV continuum and 22 micron Mid-IR luminosity respectively as a indicator of star forming activity. The fraction of galaxies with merger features in each SFR bin is obtained to see if how the fraction of galaxies with merging features($F_m$) changes as a function of SFR. As a result, for 203 late type galaxies(LTGs), we found that merger fraction increases from ~8% up to 50% with $SFR_{W4}$, while for 229 LTGs $SFR_{NUV}$ shows relatively consistent fraction(~18%) of merger fraction. For early type galaxies(ETGs), we could also find no significant correlation between $F_m$ and SFR(both $SFR_{NUV}$ and $SFR_{W4}$). This result suggests that a main driver of star forming activity of UV bright galaxies, especially for obscured late types, is mergers.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.77.2-77.2
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• 2010

A high redshift quasar is useful to investigate the early part of our universe. Since they are one of the brightest objects in the early universe, they can provide us with clues of the growth of super massive black holes and the early metal enrichment history. To discover the high redshift quasars, we designed a survey of wide area and moderate depth; Infrared Medium-deep Survey (IMS), a J-band imaging survey of ~200 $deg^2$ area where the multi-wavelength data sets exist. To obtain the J-band data, we are using the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT), and so far we have covered ~20 $deg^2$ with Y- or J-bands over three observing runs during 2009. We used color-color diagrams of multi-wavelength bands including i, z, Y, J, K, $3.6{\mu}m$ and $4.5{\mu}m$ to select high redshift quasars. The major challenge in the selection is many M/L/T dwarfs, low redshift galaxies, and instrumental defects that can be mistaken as a high redshift quasar. We describe how such contaminating sources can be excluded by adopting multiple color-color diagrams and eye-ball inspections. So far, our selection reveals two quasar candidates at z~7.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.37.1-37.1
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• 2010

A high redshift quasar is useful to investigate the early part of our universe. Since they are one of the brightest objects in the early universe, they can provide us with clues of the growth of super massive black holes and the early metal enrichment history. To discover the high redshift quasars, we designed a survey of wide area and moderate depth; Infrared Medium-deep Survey (IMS), a J-band imaging survey of ~200 deg2 area where the multi-wavelength data sets exist. To obtain the J-band data, we are using the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT), and so far we have covered~40 deg2 with Y- or J-bands over 36 observing nights. We used color-color diagrams of multi-wavelength bands including i, z, Y, J, K, $3.6{\mu}m$ and $4.5{\mu}m$ to select high redshift quasars. The major challenge in the selection is many M/L/T dwarfs, low redshift galaxies, and instrumental defects that can be mistaken as a high redshift quasar. We describe how such contaminating sources can be excluded by adopting multiple color-color diagrams and eye-ball inspections. So far, our selection reveals one quasar candidates at z~7 and a few candidates at z~6. In this poster presentation, we will update the current status of the quasar selection in the IMS fields.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.66-66
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• 2012

We describe the space project of Ultra-Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO), which will observe early optical photons from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with a sub-second optical response, for the first time. The UFFO will probe the early optical rise of GRBs, opening a completely new frontier in GRB and transient studies, using a fast-response rotatable mirror system which redirects opitical path to telescope instead of slewing of telescopes or spacecraft. In our small UFFO-Pathfinder experiment, scheduled to launch aboard the Lomonosov satellite in June 2012, we use a motorized mirror in our Slewing Mirror Telescope instrument to achieve less than one second optical response after X-ray trigger. We describe the science and the mission of the UFFO project, including a serious version called UFFO-100 which will be launched in 2014. With our program of ultra-fast optical response GRB observatories, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of GRB mechanisms, and potentially open up the z>10 universe to study via GRB as point source emission probes.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.55.2-55.2
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• 2017

We present a numerical code for the random scattering histories of Lyman alpha photons in the intergalactic medium. The numerical code calculates the radiative transfer under generic three dimensional density, ionization fraction, and peculiar velocity fields based on N-body + radiation transfer simulations of the epoch of reionization. The code is tested with models having analytical solutions, which have idealized geometry and simplified velocity fields. The emergent line profiles can give constraints to the ionization structure around Lyman alpha sources in the early universe.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.81.1-81.1
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• 2010

We present a detailed description of the blast-wave modeling technique for a very general class of GRB explosions. Providing a simple method of evaluating the blast energy, we demonstrate that a common approximation of pressure balance for the blast wave violates the energy-conservation law significantly for adiabatic blast waves. We show that the energy-violation problem is successfully resolved by the "mechanical model" that we developed. GRB afterglow lightcurves that are produced by the forward and reverse shock waves of the blast wave are presented.

• 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.