• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.42-42
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• 2012

The First stars (Pop.III stars) in the universe are expected to be formed between the recombination era at z - 1100 and the most distant quasar (z - 8). They have never been directly detected due to its faintness so far, but can be observed as a background radiation at around 1${\mu}m$ which is called the Cosmic Near-Infrared Background (CNB). Main part of the CNB is thought to be redshifted Lyman-alpha from gas clouds surrounding the Pop.III stars. Until now, the COBE (COsmic Background Explorer) and the IRTS (Infrared Telescope in Space) observed excess emission over the background due to galaxies. To confirm the COBE and the IRTS results and pursue more observational evidences, we carried out the sounding rocket experiment named the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER). The CIBER is successfully launched on July 10, 2010 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA. It consists of three kinds of instruments. We report the results obtained by LRS (Low Resolution Spectrometer) which is developed to fill the uncovered spectrum around 1${\mu}m$. LRS is a refractive telescope of 5.5 cm aperture with spectral resolution of 20 - 30 and wavelength coverage of 0.7 to 2.0${\mu}m$. After subtracting foreground components (zodiacal light, integrated star light and diffuse galactic light) from the sky brightness of observed five fields, there remained significant residual emission (even for the lower limit case) consistent with the IRTS and the COBE results. In addition, there exists a clear gap at 0.7 - 0.8${\mu}m$ in the CNB spectrum over the background due to galaxies according to recent results (Matsuoka et al. 2011; Mattila et al. 2011). The origin of the excess emission could be ascribed to the Pop.III stars with its active era of z = 7 - 10.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2019

The KVN(Korean VLBI Network)-style simultaneous multi-frequency receiving mode is demonstrated to be promising for mm-VLBI observations. Recently, other Very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) facilities all over the globe start to implement compatible optics systems. Simultaneous dual/multi-frequency VLBI observations at mm wavelengths with international baselines are thus possible. In this paper, we present the results from the first successful simultaneous 22/43 GHz dual-frequency observation with KaVA(KVN and VERA array), including images and astrometric results. Our analysis shows that the newly implemented simultaneous receiving system has brought a significant extension of the coherence time of the 43 GHz visibility phases along the international baselines. The astrometric results obtained with KaVA are consistent with those obtained with the independent analysis of the KVN data. Our results thus confirm the good performance of the simultaneous receiving systems for the nonKVN stations. Future simultaneous observations with more global stations bring even higher sensitivity and micro-arcsecond level astrometric measurements of the targets.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.43.1-43.1
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• 2015

We have discovered an unexplored population of galaxies featuring weak broad-line regions (BLRs) at z < 0.2 from detailed analysis of galaxy spectra in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. These objects predominantly show a stellar continuum but also a broad $H{\alpha}$ emission line, indicating the presence of a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN) oriented so that we are viewing the central engine directly without significant obscuration. These accreting black holes have previously eluded detection due to their weak nature. The new BLR AGNs we found increased the number of known type 1 AGNs by 49%. Some of these new BLR AGNs were detected at the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and their X-ray properties confirm that they are indeed type 1 AGN. Based on our new and more complete catalogue of type 1 AGNs, we derived the type 1 fraction of AGNs as a function of [OIII] ${\lambda}5007$ emission luminosity and explored the possible dilution effect on the obscured AGN due to star-formation. The new type 1 AGN fraction shows much more complex behavior with respect to black hole mass and bolometric luminosity than suggested by the existing receding torus model. The type 1 AGN fraction is sensitive to both of these factors, and there seems to be a sweet spot (ridge) in the diagram of black hole mass and bolometric luminosity. Furthermore, we present a hint that the Eddington ratio plays a role in determining the opening angles. This work is submitted to ApJS.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.45.2-46
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• 2017

3C 84 (NGC 1275) is one of the most famous radio galaxies and a lot of VLBI observations have been conducted to date because of its brightness and proximity (z = 0.0176; 1 mas = 0.36 pc). The source is entering a significantly active phase with long-term increase in radio flux at cm wavelengths since 2005, and the increased activity at very-high-energy (VHE) gamma rays. In order to study properties of sub-pc-scale structure and the circumnuclear environment in 3C 84, we have conducted multi-epoch VLBI observations with the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) at 86 and 129 GHz, and monthly monitoring by the KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) at 43 GHz from 2015 August. Following the report in the previous KAS meeting (cf. 2016 KAS Autumn Annual Meeting, [구 GC-10]), we present further results mainly on the basis of twelve-epoch observations with KaVA at 43 GHz. Through the monthly monitoring with KaVA, we found that peak intensity of the pc-scale southern lobe (C3) was increased from $2.60\;Jy\;beam^{-1}$ in 2015 October to $9.80\;Jy\;beam^{-1}$ in 2016 June, corresponding to a flux increase of 3.7 times in eight months. We also detected change in direction of motion of C3 from transversal to outward with respect to C1, concurrently with the beginning of its flux increase in 2015 October. We consider that these phenomena are due to interaction of C3 with the ambient medium, and are related to the gamma-ray flare which has been detected with VHE gamma-ray telescopes such as MAGIC and VERITAS.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.61.2-61.2
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• 2011

Low-ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs) have been generally regarded to be powered by active galactic nuclei (AGNs), yet still a number of alternative explanations on the origin of LINER emission are suggested; for example, planetary nebulae nuclei of massive stars, supernovae shocks from death of massive stars, and old stellar populations. Interestingly, a majority of recent star formation early-type galaxies (ETGs) in local universe presents such LINER emission lines. Given that situation, revealing the true nature of LINERs is a crucial step to constrain the evolution path to quiescent ETGs. To resolve the issue, we use Keck/LRIS to obtain spatially resolved spectra on a carefully selected ETG. The ETG SDSS J091628.05+420818.7 at redshift z ~ 0.024 shows modest LINER emission line features without any detection of 21 cm radio continuum nor X-ray emission. We perform a stellar continuum subtraction and measure emission line strengths and their uncertainties for each spectrum from five apertures along the slit with size of 1 arcsecond (~0.5 kpc). We find that extended spatial distributions of four emission lines $H{\alpha}$, $H{\beta}$, [OIII]${\lambda}5007$, and [NII]${\lambda}6583$, and they can be explained by central emission blurring effect. We conclude that the emissions seem to be centrally concentrated, indicating the AGN-nature of LINERs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.38.2-38.2
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• 2020

Horizon Run 5 (HR5) is a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation which captures the properties of the Universe on a Gpc scale while achieving a resolution of 1 kpc. This enormous dynamic range allows us to simultaneously capture the physics of the cosmic web on very large scales and account for the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies on much smaller scales. Inside the simulation box. we zoom-in on a high-resolution cuboid region with a volume of 1049 × 114 × 114 Mpc3. The subgrid physics chosen to model galaxy formation includes radiative heating/cooling, reionization, star formation, supernova feedback, chemical evolution tracking the enrichment of oxygen and iron, the growth of supermassive black holes and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the form of a dual jet-heating mode. For this simulation we implemented a hybrid MPI-OpenMP version of the RAMSES code, specifically targeted for modern many-core many thread parallel architectures. For the post-processing, we extended the Friends-of-Friend (FoF) algorithm and developed a new galaxy finder to analyse the large outputs of HR5. The simulation successfully reproduces many observations, such as the cosmic star formation history, connectivity of galaxy distribution and stellar mass functions. The simulation also indicates that hydrodynamical effects on small scales impact galaxy clustering up to very large scales near and beyond the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale. Hence, caution should be taken when using that scale as a cosmic standard ruler: one needs to carefully understand the corresponding biases. The simulation is expected to be an invaluable asset for the interpretation of upcoming deep surveys of the Universe.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.187-196
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• 2005

From the line ratios of Si III] 1892 to C III] 1909 (Feibelman & Aller 1987), we estimated the BLR electron densities and their changes of Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 using IUE spectra observed from June 11 to July 29, 1996 (Wanders et al. 1997). We separated blended Si III] and C III] lines using the STARLINK/DIPSO and measured their fluxes within the error of $12.4\%\;and\;6.6\%,$ respectively. Electron density fluctuated from $10^{9.69}\;to\;10^{10.93}$ during about two month period, i.e. 17.3 times density variation within 50 days. We also derived time delays from UV emission line variations .elative to the continuum $(at\;1315{\AA}):$ 2 days for C IV, 4 days for C III], 8 days for Si III]. This suggests that their stratified UV line emission regions are at 0.002 pc, 0.004 pc and 0.006 pc, respectively, from the central region. Based on the BLR sizes and their rotation velocities deduced from the line profiles, we estimate the central black hole mass as about $10^6M_{\odot}$

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 2009

We investigate the dependence of star formation rate and Active Galaxy Nuclei (AGN) frequency on the bar properties, especially the bar strength, using SDSS DR6. To better represent the bar strength, we divided the bars into 6 classes according to their length and axial ratios. There seems to be a fairly good correlation between the star formation rate derived from $H{\alpha}$ emission lines and the bar strength, whereas there is no apparent correlation between the AGN activity and the bar strength. We interpret that the former correlation is due to the dependence of bar-driven gas inflow on the strength of bar. The lack of correlation between AGN and bar properties suggests that the accretion of gas onto a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is regulated by the interplay between the bar and SMBH. The frequency of AGN seems to be dependent on the background density but the star formation rate does not. It suggests that star formation is a localized phenomenon that is mostly determined by the gas density in a galaxy, while AGN activity is more closely related to the host property such as mass and luminosity that are thought to be dependent on the environment through the density-luminosity relation.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.81-87
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• 2003

It is suggested that a flying-by star in a hot accretion disk may cool the hot accretion disk by the Comptonization of the stellar emission. Such a stellar cooling can be observed in the radio frequency regime since synchrotron luminosity depends strongly on the electron temperature of the accretion flow. If a bright star orbiting around the supermassive black hole cools the hot disk, one should expect a quasi-periodic modulation in radio, or even possible an anti-correlation of luminosities in radio and X-rays. Recently, the unprecedentedly accurate infrared imaging of the Sagittarius A$\ast$ for about ten years enables us to resolve stars around it and thus determine orbital parameters of the currently closest star S2. We explore the possibility of using such kind of observation to distinguish two quite different physical models for the central engine of the Sagittarius A$\ast$, that is, a hot accretion disk model and a jet model. We have attempted to estimate the observables using the observed parameters of the star S2. The relative difference in the electron temperature is a few parts of a thousand at the epoch when the star S2 is near at the pericenter. The relative radio luminosity difference with and without the stellar cooling is also small of order $10^{-4}$, particularly even when the star S2 is near at the pericenter. On the basis of our findings we tentatively conclude that even the currently closest pass of the star S2 is insufficiently close enough to meaningfully constrain the nature of the Sagittarius A$\ast$ and distinguish two competing models. This implies that even though Bower et al. (2002)have found no periodic radio flux variations in their data set from 1981 to 1998, which is naturally expected from the presence of a hot disk, a hot disk model cannot be conclusively ruled out. This is simply because the energy bands they have studied are too high to observe the effect of the star S2 even if it indeed interacts with the hot disk. In other words, even if there is a hot accretion disk the star like S2 has imprints in the frequency range at v $\le$ 100 MHz.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.89-102
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• 2021

Even in an era where 8-meter class telescopes are common, small telescopes are considered very valuable research facilities since they are available for rapid follow-up or long term monitoring observations. To maximize the usefulness of small telescopes in Korea, we established the SomangNet, a network of 0.4-1.0 m class optical telescopes operated by Korean institutions, in 2020. Here, we give an overview of the project, describing the current participating telescopes, its scientific scope and operation mode, and the prospects for future activities. SomangNet currently includes 10 telescopes that are located in Australia, USA, and Chile as well as in Korea. The operation of many of these telescopes currently relies on operators, and we plan to upgrade them for remote or robotic operation. The latest SomangNet science projects include monitoring and follow-up observational studies of galaxies, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, symbiotic stars, solar system objects, neutrino/gravitational-wave sources, and exoplanets.