• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.145-148
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• 2005

We present a photometric study of galaxies in the central regions of six nearby galaxy clusters at redshift z=0.0231${\~}$0.0951. We have derived BVI photometry of the galaxies from the CCD images obtained at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomical Observatory (BOAO) in Korea, and JHKs photometry of the bright galaxies from the 2MASS extended source catalog. Comparing the galaxy photometry results with the simple stellar population model of Bruzual & Charlot (2003) in the optical & NIR color-color diagrams, we have estimated the ages and metallicities of early type galaxies. We have found that the observed galaxies had recent star-formation mostly 5 ${\~}$ 7 Gyrs ago but the spread in age estimation is rather large. The average metallicities are [Fe/H]=0.l${\~}$0.5 dex. These results support the hypothesis that large early type galaxies in clusters are formed via hierarchical merging of smaller galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.487-488
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• 2015

In type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) cosmology, a well-established correlation exists between the mass of host galaxies and the Hubble residual (HR) of SNe Ia. In order to investigate the origin of this correlation, we used low-resolution spectroscopic data of early-type host galaxies obtained from our YOnsei Nearby Supernovae Evolution Investigation (YONSEI) project. We measured velocity dispersions and Lick/IDS absorption line indices from these fully calibrated spectra. These indices were used to estimate the luminosity-weighted mean age, metallicity and mass of host galaxies. We found a tight correlation between host mass and population age, which is consistent with the "downsizing" trend in early-type galaxies. This suggests that the well-established correlation between HR and host mass is most likely due to the difference in population age. More observations, which are in progress, are required to understand the impact of luminosity evolution on SNe Ia cosmology.

• 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.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 1998

The $H{\beta}$ and some metal line indices, such as Mg2, Fe52 of single-age and single-metallicity populations are computed based on the method of evolutionary population synthesis, with careful consideration of the variation of the horizontal-branch morphology with metallicity and age. We find (a) that while metal lines are little af-fected, the $H{\beta}$ index is severely enhanced (up to 30%)by the presence of the blue horizontal-branch stars, frustrating the current age-estimations from this index with out careful consideration of these stars, and (b) that there is a systematic trend in the sense that the globular clusters in giant elliptical galaxies appear to be older than those in our Galaxy by several billion years. We also calculate these indices for the stellar populations with a metallicity spread, by adopting metallicity distribution functions predicted by chemical evolution models. The comparison of the models with the observed indices of the central regions of the early-type galaxies yields the results (a) that the ages of the giant elliptical galaxies would be older than the previous estimations by several billion years, and (b) that there is a considerable age spread among elliptical galaxies, in the sense that the giant elliptical galaxies are older than small ones.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.36.1-36.1
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• 2014

The correlation between mass of Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) host galaxies and Hubble residual is now well-established. The origin of this relation, however, is yet to be understood. We have used low-resolution spectra of early-type hosts from YONSEI (YOnsei Nearby Supernovae Evolution Investigation) project to measure central velocity dispersion and Lick/IDS absorption indices. By using the Evolutionary Population Synthesis (EPS) models, luminosity-weighted mean age and metallicity of host galaxies were determined from $H{\beta}$ and absorption lines. Here we will discuss the correlation between the velocity dispersion, which indicates the mass of galaxies, and mean age of stellar population in our sample of early-type host galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.31.2-31.2
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• 2012

We present the Yonsei Evolutionary Population Synthesis (YEPS) models for spectroscopic and photometric evolutions of simple and composite stellar populations. The models are based on the most up-to-date Yonsei-Yale stellar evolutionary tracks and BaSel 3.1 flux libraries, and provide integrated spectroscopic quantities of Lick/IDS system including high-order Balmer absorption-lines. Special care has been taken to incorporate the systematic variation of horizontal branch (HB) morphology as functions of metallicity, age, alpha-element mixture, and helium abundance of simple stellar populations. Our models for normal-helium stellar populations indicate that the realistic modeling of HB and alpha-element brings about 5 Gyr and 0.1 dex differences in age and metallicity estimations, respectively, compared to those without these effects. The HB effect does not depend on the specific choice of stellar libraries and alpha-element enhancements, and this effect is non-negligible even in the metal sensitive absorption indices, such as Mg2 and Mg b. Comparison of the models to observations reveals that the HB and alpha-element effects are critical in understanding otherwise inexplicable phenomena found in globular cluster systems in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, including the observed bimodality of the line strengths of globular clusters in massive galaxies. In addition, we found that helium-enhanced stellar populations, which are the major sources of extreme HB stars, bring about increased FUV, NUV fluxes, and thus the model colors of those filters become extremely blue. Age dating based on the YEPS model with normal-helium stellar populations reveals that the evidence for 'downsizing' of elliptical galaxies is found not only in the local field but also in Coma cluster, and that the mean age of elliptical galaxies in Coma cluster is about 1.4 Gyr younger than the mean age of those in the local field. We also find that our models with helium-enhanced subpopulations can naturally reproduce the strong UV-upturns observed in giant elliptical galaxies assuming an age similar to that of old GCs in the Milky Way.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.56.2-56.2
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• 2012

We present a study of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) contribution to the total Ks band luminosity of star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) as a function of age. AGB stars, a representative intermediate-age population, are a strong source of NIR to MIR emission so that they are a critical component for understanding the near-to-mid infrared observation of galaxies. Current calibration of IR emission in evolutionary population synthesis (EPS) models for galaxies is mainly based on a small number of LMC star clusters. However, each LMC star cluster with intermediate age contains only a few AGB stars so that it suffers from a stochastic effect. Therefore a large number of them are needed for solid calibration of the EPS models. We study physical properties of a large number of LMC star clusters to estimate the Ks band luminosity fraction of AGB stars in star clusters as a function of age. We discuss the stochastic effect in calibrating models, and the importance of this calibration for studying the evolution of not only nearby galaxies but also of high-z galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.77.2-77.2
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• 2017

We investigate star formation activities of ~400 barred and unbarred faced-on late-type galaxies from the SDSS-IV MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO) IFU survey. We find the star formation activities in gas-poor, barred galaxies are considerably suppressed than gas-rich, barred galaxies, while there is no difference among unbarred galaxies regardless of their HI gas content. The gas-poor and barred galaxies show the steeper difference of gradient in metallicity and age with respect to the stellar mass than gas-rich or unbarred galaxies, in that their centre is more metal-rich and younger. The results suggest that, combined with the gas contents available, the bar structure plays a significant role in quenching star formation in a galaxy by transporting/mixing gas via gas inflow.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.78-78
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• 2003

Dwarf galaxies are the most common type of galaxy in the universe and believed to be basic building blocks of the large scale structures. In order to understand the formation history of these galaxies, we selected two well-observed galaxies in the Local Group and constructed the stellar population models including HB stars. We employed Y$^2$ Isochrones (Yi et al. 2001) and HB tracks (Yi et al. 1997) for stellar population synthesis. Our models show that (1) the Carina dSph has several distinct populations with age of ∼10.5, 5.8, 4.1, 2.8 and 1.0 Gyrs, and (2) stellar populations of the Sextans dSph are constructed in terms of the two populations with age of ∼ 11 and ∼2.5 Gyrs. Observational data were kindly provided by Lee et al. (2003, in preparation) and Monelli et al. (2003) for Sextans and Carina dsphs, respectively.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.67.1-67.1
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• 2011

Recent observations and modeling of globular clusters with multiple populations strongly indicate the presence of super helium-rich subpopulations in old stellar systems. Motivated by this, we have constructed new population synthesis models with and without helium-enhanced subpopulations to investigate their impact on the UV-upturn phenomenon of quiescent early-type galaxies. We find that our models with helium-enhanced subpopulations can naturally reproduce the strong UV-upturns observed in giant elliptical galaxies assuming an age similar to that of old globular clusters in the Milky Way. The major source of far-UV (FUV) flux, in this model, is relatively metal-poor and helium-enhanced hot horizontal branch stars and their progeny. The Burstein et al. (1988) relation of the FUV - V color with metallicity is also explained either by the variation of the fraction of helium-enhanced subpopulations or by the spread in mean age of stellar populations in early-type galaxies.