• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.54.3-55
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• 2018

We present the physical and environmental properties of nearby dwarf elliptical-like galaxies. The present sample consists of ~ 1,100 dwarf elliptical-like galaxies within redshifts 0.01. The morphological types of the present study were determined by Ann, Seo, and Ha (2015) who classified the dwarf elliptical-like galaxies by the five subtypes of dS0, dE, dSph, dEbc, and dEblue. We examine their star formation history using STARLIGHT. The star formation history of dwarf elliptical-like galaxies depends on their subtypes. The luminosities of dS0, dE, and dSph galaxies are dominated by the extremely old stars (${\geq}10^{10}yr$) with $z{\approx}0.0004$ while those of dEbc and dEblue galaxies are mainly due to the young (${\sim}10^7yr$) stars together with the nearly equal contribution by extremely young stars (${\sim}10^6yr$) and old (${\sim}10^9yr$) stars. Young populations have a variety of metallicity, from z=0.0001 to z = 0.04, while old populations have metallicity of z = 0.0001 and z = 0.0004. While the formation history of stars older than ~1010yr depends mainly on the luminosity of galaxies, the formation history of stars younger than ~108yr is mainly affected by their environment. However, luminosity and environment are equally important for the star formation history if there is no star formation at the early phase of galaxy formation.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.385-387
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• 2015

Stellar mass is an important parameter of galaxies. We estimate the dynamical mass of an elliptical galaxy by its velocity dispersion and effective radius using the Hernquist model in the framework of MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND). MOND is an alternative theory to the dark matter paradigm. In MOND the dynamical mass is the same as the baryonic mass or luminous mass, and in elliptical galaxies most of the baryons reside in stars. We select elliptical galaxies between redshift 0.05 and 0.5 from the main galaxy sample and the luminous red galaxy sample in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that the stellar mass-to-light ratio at different redshift epochs can be fitted by a gamma distribution, and its mean is smaller at smaller redshifts.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.59-64
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• 2010

The core and global properties of the early-type ("red sequence") galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax clusters are examined using high-quality HST/ACS imaging for 143 galaxies. Rather than dividing neatly into disparate populations having distinct formation and/or evolution histories, many of the core and global properties of these galaxies show smooth and systematic variations along the galaxy luminosity function. The few examples of the rare class of compact elliptical galaxies in our sample all show properties that are strongly suggestive of tidal stripping by massive galaxies; if so, then these systems should not be viewed as populating the low-luminosity extension of so-called "normal" elliptical sequences. These results demonstrate that complete and/or unbiased samples are a pre-requisite for identifying the physical mechanisms that gave rise to the early-type galaxies we observe locally, and how these mechanisms varied with mass and environment.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.39.3-39.3
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• 2016

About one tenth of dwarf elliptical galaxies found in the Virgo cluster have a disk component, and some of them even possess substructures such as bars, lens, and spiral arms. We use N-body simulations to study the formation of these non-axisymmetric features in disky dwarf elliptical galaxies. By mimicking VCC 856, a bulgeless dwarf galaxy with embedded faint spiral arms, we construct 11 sets of initial conditions with slight dynamical variations based on observational data. Our standard model starts slowly to form a bar at ~3 Gyr and then undergoes buckling instability that temporarily weakens the bar although the bar strength continues to grow afterward. We find 9 of our models are unstable to bar formation and undergo buckling instability. This suggests that disky dwarf elliptical galaxies are intrinsically unstable to form bars, accounting for a population of barred dwarf galaxies in the outskirts of the Virgo cluster. To understand the origin of the faint grand-design spiral arms, we additionally construct 6 sets of models that undergo tidal interactions with their neighbors. We find that faint spiral arms consistent with observations develop when tidal forcing is relatively weak although strong encounter still results in bar formation. We discuss our results in light of the dynamical evolution of dwarf elliptical galaxies including mergers.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.381-383
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• 2015

MOdified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is an alternative to the dark matter paradigm. MOND asserts that when the magnitude of acceleration is smaller than the acceleration parameter $a_0$, the response of the system to gravity is stronger (larger acceleration) than the one given by Newtonian dynamics. The current value of $a_0$ is obtained mostly by observations of spiral galaxies (rotation curves and the Tully-Fisher relation). We attempt to estimate $a_0$ from the dynamics of elliptical galaxies. We seek elliptical galaxies that act as the lens of gravitational lensing systems and have velocity dispersion data available. We analysed 65 Einstein rings from the Sloan Len ACS survey (SLACS). The mass estimates from gravitation lensing and velocity dispersion agree well with each other, and are consistent with the estimates from population synthesis with a Salpeter IMF. The value of $a_0$ obtained from this analysis agrees with the current value.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.65.2-65.2
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• 2016

We present a new database of our two-dimensional bulge-disk decompositions for 14,482 galaxies drawn from SDSS DR12 in order to examine the properties of bulges residing in the local universe (0.005 < z < 0.05). We performed decompositions in g and r bands by utilizing the GALFIT software. The bulge colors and bulge-to-total ratios are found to be sensitive to the details in the decomposition technique. The g-r colors of bulges derived are almost constantly red regardless of bulge size except for the bulges in the low bulge-to-total ratio galaxies (approximately $B/T_r{\leq}0.3$). Bulges exhibit similar scaling relations to those followed by elliptical galaxies, but the bulges in galaxies with lower bulge-to-total ratios clearly show a gradually larger departure in slope from the elliptical galaxy sequence. The scatters around the scaling relations are also larger for the bulges in galaxies with lower bulge-to-total ratios. Both the departure in slopes and larger scatters are likely originated from the presence of young stars. While bulges seem largely similar in optical properties to elliptical galaxies, they do show clear and systematic departures as a function of bulge-to-total ratio. The stellar properties and perhaps associated formation processes of bulges seem much more diverse than those of elliptical galaxies.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.49-51
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• 1996

New population synthesis models, with the effects of metallicity spread and the horizontal-branch (HB) morphology, provide a way to break the well-known age-metallicity degeneracy in the analysis of the integrated light of elliptical galaxies. Our models suggest that the far- UV radiation of these systems is dominated by a minority population of metal-poor, hot HB stars and their post-HB progeny, while the optical radiation is dominated by a metal-rich population. The systematic variation of UV upturn depends on the contribution from metal-poor, hot HB stars and their post-HB progeny, which in turn depends on the ages of old stellar populations in galaxies. Our result implies a prolonged epoch of galaxy formation, in the sense that more massive galaxies (in denser environments) formed first. Our models also suggest that the strenghth of H$\beta$ index is strongly affected by HB stars, and hence previous age estimation without detailed modeling of the HB would underestimate the ages of ellipticals by $\~$7 Gyr.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.37.2-37.2
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• 2013

Recently it turns out that simple-looking elliptical galaxies and lenticular galaxies are more complex and intriguing than expected. One of the most surprising and intriguing findings in extragalactic studies during the last two decades is a discovery that color distribution of the globular clusters in these galaxies is bimodal, suggesting that there are two subpopulations: blue and red globular clusters. We present a determination of the two-dimensional shape parameters of the blue and red globular cluster systems (GCSs) in a large number of bright elliptical galaxies and lenticular galaxies. The position angles of both and red GCSs show a correlation with those of the stellar light distribution, showing that the major axes of the GCSs are well aligned with those of their host galaxies. However, the shapes of the red GCSs show a tight correlation with the stellar light distribution as with the rotation property of their host galaxies, while the shapes of the blue GCSs do much less. These provide clear geometric evidence that the origins of the blue and red globular clusters are distinct and that these galaxies may have dual halos: a blue (metal-poor) halo and a red (metal-rich) halo. These two halos show significant differences in metallicity, structure, and kinematics, indicating that they are formed in two distinguishable ways. The red halos might have formed via dissipational processes with rotation, while the blue halos are through accretion.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.51-65
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• 1998

We present B VRI CCD surface photometry for the central $(6'.35\times6'.35)$ regions of the dwarf elliptical galaxies NGC 185 and NGC 205 in the Local Group. Surface brightness profiles of NGC 185 (R<225') and NGC 205 (R<186') show excess components in the central regions. The colors of NGC 185 get bluer inward at R<25', while they remain constant at $R\geq25'$. The colors of NGC 205 get bluer inward at 1'$\approx10^5\; L_\bigodot$. Distributions of dust clouds in the central regions of the two galaxies are also investigated.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.61.1-61.1
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• 2011

We have performed simultaneous observations at 22GHz and 43GHz on AGNs hosted by elliptical galaxies using KVN radio telescope. We have constructed the sample, based on two major surveys in radio and optical band, i.e. Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters (FIRST) and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7, respectively. We restricted the redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.06 and the absolute magnitude Mr < -19.4 in order to satisfy volume limited sample. We also checked clear detection of four distinctive emission lines ([NII], [OIII], $H{\alpha}$, $H{\beta}$) so as to utilize on BPT diagram, distinguishing AGNs from star-forming galaxies. Elliptical galaxies have been selected by visual inspection making use of SDSS optical images. Then, we cross-matched the elliptical galaxies with FIRST detections. About 35% of the galaxies have been detected throughout KVN observations. We derive spectral index, applying the flux of different radio frequencies from FIRST (1.4GHz) and KVN (22GHz) and classify into steep, flat or inverted spectrum. We have found that most of the detected galaxies have flat spectrum while the rest of them have steep spectrum. This implies that a number of detected galaxies might have compact structure associated with the central region of the galaxies. The relation between black hole mass and radio luminosity has shown relatively tighter correlation in high frequency than in low frequency, which confirms that high frequency in radio band is appropriate to study the center of the galaxies.