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

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.57.3-57.3
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• 2015

The formation of the Milky Way stellar halo is thought to be the result of merging and accretion of building blocks such as dwarf galaxies and massive globular clusters. Recently, Deason et al. (2015) suggested that the Milky Way outer halo formed mostly from big building blocks, such as dwarf spheroidal galaxies, based on the similar number ratio of blue straggler (BS) stars to blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars. Here we demonstrate, however, that this result is seriously biased by not taking into detailed consideration on the formation mechanism of BHB stars from helium enhanced second-generation population. In particular, the high BS-to-BHB ratio observed in the outer halo fields is most likely due to a small number of BHB stars provided by GCs rather than to a large number of BS stars. This is supported by our dynamical evolution model of GCs which shows preferential removal of first generation stars in GCs. Moreover, there are sufficient number of outer halo GCs which show very high BS-to-BHB ratio. Therefore, the BS-to-BHB number ratio is not a good indicator to use in arguing that more massive dwarf galaxies are the main building blocks of the Milky Way outer halo. Several lines of evidence still suggest that GCs can contribute a signicant fraction of the outer halo stars.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.121-124
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• 2005

High resolution images of the nuclear regions of nearby galaxies show that nuclear spirals are preponderant in normal galaxies as well as in active galaxies. These nuclear spirals, especially the grand-design nuclear spirals are found to be formed by the gas flow driven by the bar. Hydrodynamical simulations exploring a wide range of parameter space show that the morphology of nuclear spirals depends not only on the inner dynamics but on the global dynamics resulting from the global mass distribution of galaxies. Thus, the nuclear morphology can be a diagnostic tool for the inner dynamics of galaxies when the global mass distribution is taken into account.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.261-270
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• 2003

We have conducted a V-band CCD surface photometry of 68 disk galaxies to analyze the bulge morphology of nearby spirals. We classify bulges into four types according to their ellipticities and the misalignments between the major axis of the bulge and those of the disk and the bar: spherical, oblate, pseudo triaxial, and triaxial. We found that one third of the bulges are triaxial and they are preponderant in barred galaxies. The presence of the triaxial bulges in a significant fraction of unbarred galaxies as well as in barred galaxies might support the secular evolution hypothesis which postulates that the bar driven mass inflow leads to the formation of triaxial bulges and the destruction of bars when sufficient mass is accumulated in the central regions.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.36.1-36.1
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• 2018

Star formation activity of galaxies, along with color and morphology, show significant environmental dependence in local universe, where galaxies in dense environment tend to be more quiescent and redder. However, many studies show that such environmental dependence does not continue at higher redshifts beyond z~1. The question of how the environmental dependence of galactic properties have developed over time is crucial to understanding cosmic galactic evolution. By combining data from Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey(CFHTLS), Infrared Medium-Deep Survey(IMS), and other surveys, the photometric redshifts of galaxies in CFHTLS W2 field were estimated by fitting spectral energy distribution. The distribution of galaxies was mapped in redshift bins of 0.05 interval from 0.6 to 1.4. For each redshift bin, the number density was mapped. The galaxies in high density regions were grouped into clusters using friend-of-friend method. The color of galaxies were analyzed to study the correlation with redshift as well as environmental difference between field galaxies and cluster member galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2019

One day, a galaxy study suddenly came to me and became a friend of 40 years. The study of galaxies, which began with surface photometry of nearby galaxies, ended up in galaxy morphology through chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies. All that deviated from the study of galaxies was the study of the open clusters. So it seems to me that I devoted my entire life to the study of galaxies. The most memorable one is the observation at Sobaeksan Observatory. Even though the heavy snow fell, I climbed Sobaeksan to meet galaxies. Galaxies observed at Kiso Observatory, DAO, and BOAO are now beyond memory, but I still enjoy seeing them. There are many memories, but the biggest pleasure I've had in my galaxy studies is when I've encountered the galactic conformity between host and its satellite galaxies. Eureka! Now the night sky is changing from the object of study to the object of awe. I will share this joy.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.233-233
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• 2012

I review the dependence of galaxy properties on environmental parameters such as the local density, nearest neighbor distance and morphology. We find that a galaxy with an early- or late-type nearest companion within its virial radius tends to be an early or late type, respectively. The morphology of galaxies located in high density regions tends to be the same as that of the ones in low density regions if their luminosity and the nearest neighbor environment are the same. This strongly supports that galaxy morphology and luminosity evolution have been driven mainly by galaxy-galaxy interactions, and the background density affected morphology and luminosity only through the frequency of interactions.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.287-291
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• 2017

We present the results of our mid-infrared (MIR) observations of distant clusters of galaxies with AKARI. The wide-field of view of IRC/AKARI ($10^{\prime}{\times}10^{\prime}$) is ideally suited for studying dust-obscured star-formation (SF) activity of galaxies along the cosmic web in the distant universe. We performed a deep and wide-field $15{\mu}m$ (rest-frame ${\approx}8{\mu}m$) imaging observation of the RXJ1716+6708 cluster (z = 0.81) with IRC. We find that $15{\mu}m$-detected cluster member galaxies (with total infrared luminosities of $L_{IR}{\geq}10^{11}L_{\odot}$) are most preferentially located in the cluster outskirt regions, whilst such IR-luminous galaxies avoid the cluster centre. Our $H{\alpha}$ follow-up study of this field confirmed that a significant fraction of $15{\mu}m$-detected cluster galaxies are heavily obscured by dust (with $AH{\alpha}$>3 mag in extreme cases). The environment of such dusty star-burst galaxies coincides with the place where we see a sharp "break" of the colour-density relation, suggesting an important link between dust-obscured SF activity and environmental quenching. We also report the discovery of a new cluster candidate around a radio galaxy at z = 1.52 (4C 65.22), where we obtained one of the deepest IRC imaging datasets with all the nine filters at $2-24{\mu}m$. This field will provide us with the final, excellent laboratory for studying the dust-enshrouded SF activity in galaxies along the cosmic web at the critical epoch of cluster galaxy evolution with AKARI.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.33.2-33.2
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• 2012

Low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) galaxies constitute a major fraction of low-luminosity AGN population in the local Universe. In contrast to Seyfert galaxies, it is theoretically expected that LINERs would not have an outflow due to their low Eddington ratio. Using Keck/LRIS spectroscopy on a nearby LINER galaxy SDSS J091628.05+420818.7, we find a significant radial velocity offset for [OIII]${\lambda}$5007 emission line as - 50 km $s^{-1}$ blueshifted compared to systemic velocity of the galaxy, while other emission lines exhibit no or little offset. The observed [OIII] velocity offset possibly indicates an outflow of gas in the LINER galaxy, and it is probable that we only detected the [OIII] velocity offset because [OIII] ionization region is closer to the accretion disk, hence, more affected by an outflow. We further investigate the [OIII] velocity offset of -4000 SDSS AGN-host galaxies to compare the strength of AGN outflow. We find that a number of both LINER and Seyfert galaxies show [OIII] velocity offset, but the fraction of LINER galaxies with velocity offset is smaller than that of Seyfert galaxies. The preliminary results imply the presence of gas outflow in LINER galaxies, although outflow strength is probably weaker compared to Seyfert galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.413-415
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• 2015

How galaxy evolution differs in different environments is one of the intriguing questions in the study of structure formation. While galaxy properties are clearly distinguished in different environments in the local universe, it is still an open issue what causes this environmental dependence of various galaxy properties. To address this question, in this work, we investigate the build-up of passive galaxies over a wide redshift range, from z ~ 2 to z ~ 0.5, focusing on its dependence on galaxy environment. In the UKIDSS/Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) field, we identify high-redshift galaxy cluster candidates within this redshift range. Then, using deep optical and near-infrared data from Subaru and UKIRT available in this field, we analyze and compare the stellar population properties of galaxies in the clusters and in the field. Our results show that the environmental effect on galaxy star-formation properties is a strong function of redshift as well as stellar mass - in the sense that (1) the effect becomes significant at small redshift, and (2) it is stronger for low-mass ($M_{\ast}<10^{10}M_{\odot}$) galaxies. We have also found that galaxy stellar mass plays a more significant role in determining their star-formation property - i.e., whether they are forming stars actively or not - than their environment throughout the redshift range.