• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.44.2-44.2
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• 2013

The local environmental effects on the active galactic nucleus(AGN) activity has been studied by many authors, but there is still controversy. We performed statistical analysis for nearby(0.01 < z < 0.05) volume limited(Mr < -19) sample via visual inspection based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release7. We visually inspect around 50,000 galaxy images to find peculiar objects which show not only ongoing merging features and tidal features, but also post merging features like shell or ring structures. We found that the frequency of AGN host galaxies is at least 2 times higher among peculiar galaxies than non-peculiar galaxies, and this trend is still visible when galaxy properties such as color or stellar mass are fixed. Furthermore, L[OIII] of peculiar galaxies is found to be more increased than those of normal galaxies. The majority of the most luminous AGN hosts show peculiar feature, which indicates that the luminous AGN galaxies may be the result of the local environmental effects. In addition, the enhancement of L[OIII] in peculiar galaxies is more significant for bluer galaxies, which implies that AGN activity is enhanced effectively when gas is available. In order to ensure our results, we also checked it for a smaller subsample with 2 magnitude deeper monochromatic images provided by SDSS Stripe82 database, and found consistent results. Overall, the results of this study tell us that the local environment of galaxies affects the frequency as well as the strength of AGN activity.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2013

The length of solar cycle 23 has been prolonged up to about 13 years. Many studies have speculated that the solar cycle 23/24 minimum will indicate the onset of a grand minimum of solar activity, such as the Maunder Minimum. We check the trends of solar (sunspot number, solar magnetic fields, total solar irradiance, solar radio flux, and frequency of solar X-ray flare), interplanetary (interplanetary magnetic field, solar wind and galactic cosmic ray intensity), and geomagnetic (Ap index) parameters (SIG parameters) during solar cycles 21-24. Most SIG parameters during the period of the solar cycle 23/24 minimum have remarkably low values. Since the 1970s, the space environment has been monitored by ground observatories and satellites. Such prevalently low values of SIG parameters have never been seen. We suggest that these unprecedented conditions of SIG parameters originate from the weakened solar magnetic fields. Meanwhile, the deep 23/24 solar cycle minimum might be the portent of a grand minimum in which the global mean temperature of the lower atmosphere is as low as in the period of Dalton or Maunder minimum.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.92.2-92.2
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• 2014

NGC 6822 is a dwarf irregular galaxy in the Local Group. Unlike clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, molecular clouds in NGC 6822 are not influenced by the Galactic tidal force. Therefore the star forming processes are only dictated by local conditions. Hubble V is the brightest of the several bright H II region complexes in NGC 6822. The core of Hubble V, surrounded by a molecular cloud complex, contains compact clusters of bright blue stars. During the commissioning runs of the new high-resolution near-infrared spectrometer, IGRINS (Immersion GRating near-INfrared Spectrometer), we observed Hubble V and detected many emission lines from the H II regions and from the photodissociation region at the interface between the ionized gas and the molecular cloud. In this presentation, we report preliminary results of the IGRINS observations. We discuss the implications of the observed lines ratios and kinematics for our understanding of the evolution of star forming molecular clouds.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.62.1-62.1
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• 2018

Galaxies in the cluster environment interact with the intracluster medium (ICM), losing the interstellar medium (ISM) and alternating their evolution. Observational evidences of the extraplanar ISM stripped by the ICM's ram pressure are prevalent in HI imaging studies of cluster galaxies. However, current theoretical understanding of the ram pressure stripping (or ICM-ISM interaction in general) is still limited mainly due to the lack of numerical resolution at ISM scales in large-scale simulations. Especially, self-consistent modeling of the turbulent, multiphase ISM is critical to understand star formation in galaxies interacting with the ICM. To achieve this goal, we utilize the TIGRESS simulation suite, simulating a local patch of galactic disks with high resolution to resolve key physical processes in the ISM, including cooling/heating, self-gravity, MHD, star formation, and supernova feedback. We then expose the ISM disk to ICM flows and investigate the evolution of star formation rate and the properties of the ISM. By exploring ICM parameter space, we discuss an implication of the simple ram pressure stripping condition (so called the Gunn-Gott condition) to the realistic ISM.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.57.4-58
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• 2018

We explore the role of various environments in triggering star formation (SF) and narrow-line active galactic nucleus (AGN) in SDSS spiral galaxies and the SF-AGN connection, using a volume-limited sample with $M_r$ < -19.5 and 0.02 < z < 0.055 selected from the SDSS Release 7. To avoid the dependency of AGN activity on bulge mass, the central velocity dispersion of the sample galaxies is limited to have a narrow range of $130{\leq}{\sigma}{\leq}200km\;s^{-1}$. We note that in gas sufficient galaxies, AGN feeding lags behind starburst, whereas as the gas exhausts, the SF slows down and AGN seems to even prevent the SF, and thus divide the high-${\sigma}$ sample into two subsamples according to their cold gas content at central region traced by fiber star formation rate, $SFR_{fib}$. We find that a high density (cluster) environment causes a significant increase in AGN activity as well as gas depletion in host galaxies. However, the finding is only noticeable in the high-${\sigma}$ and low $SFR_{fib}$ sample. It seems that a galaxy interaction with the nearest neighbor directly affects the SF of the central region. However, it is unclear whether it directly affects AGN activity.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.85.2-85.2
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• 2012

The interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies in the galaxy cluster can well be affected by the intracluster medium (ICM). Among many suggested environmental processes, ram pressure stripping can effectively remove gas through the interaction with the ICM. In fact, Cluster galaxies are lower in HI gas mass compared to their field counterparts, and in recent high resolution HI imaging studies, many galaxies in dense environments have been found to be ram pressure stripped in HI. However, it is still under debate whether the ICM pressure can also remove dense molecular gas from the galactic disk, which plays more important role in star formation and hence galaxy evolution. To answer this question, we have obtained high resolution 12/13 CO (2-1) data from the Sub Millimeter Array (SMA) of four galaxies at various HI stripping stages to study how the molecular gas properties change as the galaxy experiences the ICM pressure. We investigate the physical properties of molecular gas with 12/13 CO images. By comparing with other wavelength data, i.e. data(optical, HI, $H{\alpha}$, etc), we discuss how and in which timescale galaxies can migrate from the blue cloud to the red sequence due to ram pressure stripping.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.35.3-36
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• 2018

One of the most prevalent knowledge about disk galaxies, which dominate the population of the local Universe, is that they consist of stellar structures with different kinematics, such as thin disk, bulge, and halo. Therefore, investigating when and how these components develop in a galaxy is the key to understanding the evolution of galaxies. Using the NewHorizon simulation, we can resolve the detailed structures of galaxies, in the field environment, from the early Universe where star formation and mergers were most active. We first decompose stellar particles in a galaxy into a disk and a dispersion-dominated, spheroidal, component based on their orbits and then see how these components evolve in terms of mass and structure. At high redshift z~3, galaxies are mostly dispersion-dominated as stars are formed misaligned with the galactic rotational axis. At z=1~2, massive galaxies start to dominantly form disk stars, while less massive galaxies do much later. Furthermore, massive galaxies are forming thinner and larger disks with time, and the preexistent disks are heated or even disrupted to become a part of dispersion-dominated component. Thus, the mass growth of spheroidal components at later epochs is dominated by disrupted stars with disk origins and accreted stars at large radii.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.35.3-35.3
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• 2019

Blazars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with relativistic jets aligned with our line of sight. The jet physics is yet to be understood, but can be studied with blazar variability (e.g., flares). The highly variable blazar 3C 279 has shown a general decline of its radio flux density since 2013, but the flux density has been increasing since 2017. To better understand physical properties of 3C 279 related with the flux variations, we analyze multi-frequency new radio data obtained with Korean VLBI Network (KVN), as well as archival data from Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) and Submillimeter Array (SMA). We measure the radio spectral variability and infer the relativistic jet properties of 3C 279. The high-cadence OVRO and SMA observations are used to construct detailed light curves of the source, and KVN data supplement the spectral coverage and allow us to locate the spectral break frequencies precisely. In this talk, we present our analysis results and interpret them using a blazar jet model.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.28.2-28.2
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• 2021

We investigate the impact of ram pressure stripping due to the intracluster medium (ICM) on star-forming disk galaxies with a multiphase interstellar medium maintained by strong stellar feedback. We carry out radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of an isolated disk galaxy embedded in a 1011 M⦿ dark matter halo with various ICM winds mimicking the cluster outskirts (moderate) and the central environment (strong). We find that both star formation quenching and triggering occur in ram pressure-stripped galaxies, depending on the strength of the winds. HI and H2 in the outer galactic disk are significantly stripped in the presence of moderate winds, whereas turbulent pressure provides support against ram pressure in the central region, where star formation is active. Moderate ICM winds facilitate gas collapse, increasing the total star formation rates by ~40% when the wind is oriented face-on or by ~80% when it is edge-on. In contrast, strong winds rapidly blow away neutral and molecular hydrogen gas from the galaxy, suppressing star formation by a factor of 2 within ~200 Myr. Dense gas clumps with nH≳10 M⦿ pc-2 are easily identified in extraplanar regions, but no significant young stellar populations are found in such clumps. In our attempts to enhance radiative cooling by adopting a colder ICM of T=106K only a few additional stars are formed in the tail region, even if the amount of newly cooled gas increases by an order of magnitude.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.52.2-52.2
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• 2013

We explore the relative importance of the role of small-scale environment and large-scale environment in triggering nuclear activity of the local galaxies using a volume-limited sample with $M_r$ < -19.5 and 0.02 < z < 0.0685 selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. The active galactic nuclei (AGN) host sample is composed of Type II AGNs identified with flux ratios of narrow emission lines with S/N > 6 and the central velocity dispersion of the sample galaxies is limited to have a narrow range between 130 < ${\sigma}$ < 200($km\;s^{-1}$), corresponding to 7.4 < $log(M_{BH}/M_{\odot})$ < 8.1 in order to fix the mass of the supermassive black hole at the center of its host galaxy. In this study, we find that the AGN fraction ($f_{AGN}$) of late-type galaxies are larger than of early-type galaxies and that for target galaxy with late-type nearest neighbor, $f_{AGN}$ starts to increase as the target galaxy approaches the virial radius of the nearest neighbor (about a few hundred kpc scale). The latter result may support the idea that the hydrodynamic interaction with the nearest neighbor as well as tidal interaction and merger also plays an important role in triggering the nuclear activity of galaxy. We also find that early-type cluster galaxies show decline of AGN activity compared to ones in lower density regions, whereas the direction of dependence of AGN activity for late-type galaxies is opposite.