• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.183-197
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• 2017

We present simulations of the optical-band images of high-redshift galaxies utilizing 845 near-ultraviolet (NUV) images of nearby galaxies obtained through the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). We compute the concentration (C), asymmetry (A), Gini (G), and $M_{20}$ parameters of the GALEX NUV/Sloan Digital Sky Survey r-band images at z ~ 0 and their artificially redshifted optical images at z = 0.9 and 1.6 in order to quantify the morphology of galaxies at local and high redshifts. The morphological properties of nearby galaxies in the NUV are presented using a combination of morphological parameters, in which early-type galaxies are well separated from late-type galaxies in the $G-M_{20}$, $C-M_{20}$, A-C, and $A-M_{20}$ planes. Based on the distribution of galaxies in the A-C and $G-M_{20}$ planes, we examine the morphological K-correction (i.e., cosmological distance effect and bandshift effect). The cosmological distance effect on the quantitative morphological parameters is found to be significant for early-type galaxies, while late-type galaxies are more greatly affected by the bandshift effect. Knowledge of the morphological K-correction will set the foundation for forthcoming studies on understanding the quantitative assessment of galaxy evolution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.47.3-48
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• 2015

We present environmental effects on the galaxy evolution in the Virgo cluster focusing on intracluster medium - interstellar medium (ICM-ISM) interactions and gravitational interactions. We identify signatures of these environmental effects for 21 massive late-type galaxies based on the visual inspection of high resolution HI data from VLA Imaging of Virgo spirals in Atomic gas (VIVA) survey comparing with multi-wavelength data. We classify galaxies into three subgroups showing different environmental effects. First and second groups includes galaxies influenced by ongoing/active and past ram pressure stripping effect, respectively. Third group consists of galaxies undergoing gravitational interactions. Additionally, we define neighbor galaxies for each VIVA galaxies utilizing kinematic data from Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog. Assuming that neighbor galaxies share similar levels of environmental effects with host VIVA galaxies, we investigate environmental effects on galaxy properties in different subgroups using SDSS optical and GALEX ultraviolet photometric data. We find that dwarf neighbor galaxies in first and second groups show rapid quenching of their star formation (SF), while massive counterparts are still in SF activity. On the other hand, most third group galaxies show hints of SF activity regardless of their mass. We conclude that SF and evolution of galaxy in the cluster environment is closely linked to ICM-ISM interactions and dwarf galaxies seem to be more sensitive to this effect compared to massive counterparts.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.195-200
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• 2011

We have revisited the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey (ACSVCS), a Hubble Space Telescope program to obtain ACS/WFC g and z bands imaging for a sample of 100 early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. In this study, we examine 51 nucleated early-type galaxies in the ACSVCS in order to look into the relationship between the photometric and structural properties of stellar nuclei and their host galaxies. We morphologically dissect galaxies into five classes. We note that (1) the stellar nuclei of dwarf early-type galaxies (dS0, dE, and dE,N) are generally fainter and bluer with g > 18.95 and (g-z) < 1.40 compared to some brighter and redder counterparts of the ellipticals (E) and lenticular galaxies (S0), (2) the g-band half-light radii of stellar nuclei of all dwarf early-type galaxies (dS0, dE, and dE,N) are smaller than 20 pc and their average is about 4 pc, and (3) the colors of red stellar nuclei with (g - z) > 1.40 in bright ellipticals and lenticular galaxies are bluer than their host galaxies colors. We also show that most of the unusually "red" stellar nuclei with (g-z) > 1.54 in the ACSVCS are the central parts of bright ellipticals and lenticular galaxies. Furthermore, we present multi photometric band color - color plots that can be used to break the age-metallicity degeneracy particularly by inclusion of the thermally pulsing-asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phases of stellar evolution in the stellar population models.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.31.1-31.1
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• 2018

While astronomers are working hard to detect the earliest galaxies and to follow their evolution to redshift z~0, they remain baffled by the present-day dichotomy between disky, star forming (aka late-type) galaxies and quiescent, spheroidal (aka early-type) galaxies. The key is to find galaxies in transition from one class to the other, whose spectra indicate intense recent star formation that has now ended. We have identified thousands of such "post-starburst galaxies" and discovered that they are often the products of late-type galaxy-galaxy mergers. Their current kinematics, stellar populations, and morphologies are consistent with late- to early-type galaxy evolution. I will discuss recent work that suggests new connections between this violent history and the central supermassive black hole. In particular, the molecular gas reservoir of a post-starburst galaxy declines rapidly after the starburst ends and in a manner consistent with feedback from an active nucleus. Furthermore, a star is ~300x more likely to be tidally disrupted by the nucleus of a post-starburst galaxy than in other galaxies. Like the well-known black hole-bulge mass correlation, these surprising links between the properties of a galaxy on kpc scales and its supermassive black hole on pc scales require explanation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.32.1-32.1
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• 2018

The galactic warp is almost ubiquitous among disk galaxies and suspected to be an imprint of recent interactions with other galaxies. The detailed evolutionary course, however, is still uncertain due to the lack of observational evidence. To address this issue, we construct a new extensive catalog of 412 conspicuously warped disks at z = 0.01 ~ 0.05, based on SDSS DR7. We classify the warp morphology through a visual inspection from the Zooniverse Project and our new automated scheme for the warp measurement. We find an interesting color difference between S-and U-shaped warps. The U-type warp galaxies exhibits considerable color offset towards blue compared to both the S-type warps and the control sample of un-warped galaxies. The effect is even more pronounced for galaxies (a) with the greater warp amplitude and (b) with lower luminosity. This is the first piece of observational evidence that the S- and U-shaped warps are on different evolutionary phases in terms of not only dynamics but stellar populations as well. We discuss the implications in the context of the warp evolution theory.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.48.3-49
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• 2015

Scaling relations of early-type galaxies (ETG) provide a deep insight into their formation and evolution. Interestingly enough, most relations extending into the dwarf regimes display non-linear or broken-linear features, unlike the linear relations for normal (i.e., intermediate-mass to giant) ETGs only. Here we investigate the mass-size scaling relation of ETGs using a massive database of galaxies from SDSS DR12. We divide ETGs into two groups by the indication of star formation such as colors, and examine their distinction along the mass-size relation. We find that the mass-size distribution of blue, young normal galaxies is in good agreement with that of dwarf ETGs. Our result suggests that blue, young normal ETGs may serve as links between (passive) normal ETGs and dwarfs. We discuss the possibility of blue, young ETGs being progenitors of dwarf ETGs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.35.3-35.3
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• 2015

The central molecular zone (CMZ) is a region of rich molecular gas located in the inner few hundred parsecs in barred spiral galaxies. We study the size and morphology evolution of the CMZ of Milky Way-like galaxies both in isolation and in interaction by using N-body/hydrodynamic simulations. Specifically, we examine the gas flows and star formation activities in the central region of the galaxies. We focus in particular on the effects of galaxy interactions, including flybys and minor mergers, on the evolution of the CMZ.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.473-474
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• 2015

Halo merger trees are the essential backbone of semi-analytic models for galaxy formation and evolution. Srisawat et al. (2013) show that different tree building algorithms can build different halo merger histories from a numerical simulation for structure formation. In order to understand the differences induced by various tree building algorithms, we investigate the impact of halo merger trees on a semi-analytic model. We find that galaxy properties in our models show differences between trees when using a common parameter set. The models independently calibrated for each tree can reduce the discrepancies between global galaxy properties at z=0. Conversely, with regard to the evolutionary features of galaxies, the calibration slightly increases the differences between trees. Therefore, halo merger trees extracted from a common numerical simulation using different, but reliable, algorithms can result in different galaxy properties in the semi-analytic model. Considering the uncertainties in baryonic physics governing galaxy formation and evolution, however, these differences may not necessarily be significant.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.59.2-59.2
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• 2013

The luminosity evolution of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) and dust extinction play major roles in the systematic uncertainties in the SN cosmology. In order to overcome these obstacles, here we propose to use GMT-GMACS to take spectra for early-type host-galaxies of SNe Ia in the redshift range between 0.2 and 1.0. This high-redshift sample will be taken from Dark Energy Survey (DES), which expects more than 200 early-type hosts at this redshift range. They will be compared with nearby early-type hosts, for which we are now obtaining low-resolution spectra. We will select host-galaxies of same population age range for both nearby and high-redshift samples to reduce the possible evolution effect. Since we are dealing with early-type galaxies, our test is also less affected by dust extinction. We expect that our evolution-free and dust-free dark energy test will provide more robust results on the nature of dark energy.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2013

We utilize Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 spectroscopic data of ~380 star forming galaxies in the Virgo cluster to investigate their chemical properties depending on the environments. The chemical evolution of galaxies is linked to their star formation histories as well as to the gas interchange in different environments. We derived star formation rate (SFR) and gaseous metallicity (e.g., oxygen abundance) of star forming galaxies. Combining with GALEX ultraviolet photometry and ALFALFA HI 21 cm data, we examine the relations between SFRs, metallicity, and HI deficiency of galaxies in various regions of the Virgo cluster. We also quantify the degree of ram pressure around galaxy using the ROSAT X-ray surface brightness map. We discuss environmental effects on the chemical properties and evolution of star forming galaxies.