• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.63.1-63.1
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• 2011

M82 is a famous starburst galaxy which is dominated by young stellar populations and ISM. Some previous studies indicated the existence of intermediate-age and old stellar population in this galaxy, but little is known about them. We present a study of old globular clusters in M82 using the Hubble Space Telescope archive data. From the cluster survey of M82 we found 650 star clusters. We divided them into disk and halo star clusters according to their position. The color-color diagrams show that all 19 halo star clusters are old globular clusters. The disk sample may include both reddened young clusters and geniune old globular clusters. We estimated their ages using spectral energy distribution fit method with six filter data covering from ultraviolet (F330W) to infrared (F160W), and found that 30 of them are older than 3 Gyr. These are considered to be disk globular clusters. Twelve of the halo globular clusters are found to be partially resolved into their member stars. The (B-V) color range of the halo globular clusters is consistent with that of the Milky Way globular clusters, but most of M82 globular clusters are bluer than (B-V)=0.7. The existence of these old globular clusters suggests that the starburst galaxy M82 has an old stellar halo that may be as old as the Milky Way halo.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.40.2-40.2
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• 2018

NGC 5024 and NGC 5053 are among the most metal-poor globular clusters in the Milky Way. Both globular clusters are considered to be accreted from dwarf galaxies (like Sagittarius dwarf galaxy or Magellanic clouds), and common stellar envelope and tidal tails between globular clusters are also detected. We present a search for extra-tidal cluster member candidates around these globular clusters from APOGEE survey data. Using 20 chemical elements (e.g., Fe, C, Mg, Al) and radial velocities, t-distributed stochastic neighbour embedding (t-SNE), which identifies an optimal mapping of a high-dimensional space into fewer dimensions, was explored, and we find that globular cluster stars are well separated from the field stars in 2-dimensional map from t-SNE. We also find that some stars selected in t-SNE map are placed outside of the tidal radius of the clusters. The proper motion of stars outside tidal radius is also comparable to that of globular clusters, which suggest that these stars are tidally decoupled from the globular clusters. We manually measure chemical abundances for the clusters and extra-tidal stars, and discuss the association of extra-tidal stars with the clusters.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2016

Over the last few years, the data obtained using the Large Area Telescope (LAT) aboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has provided new insights on high-energy processes in globular clusters, particularly those involving compact objects such as MilliSecond Pulsars (MSPs). Gamma-ray emission in the 100 MeV to 10 GeV range has been detected from more than a dozen globular clusters in our galaxy, including 47 Tucanae and Terzan 5. Based on a sample of known gammaray globular clusters, the empirical relations between gamma-ray luminosity and properties of globular clusters such as their stellar encounter rate, metallicity, and possible optical and infrared photon energy densities, have been derived. The measured gamma-ray spectra are generally described by a power law with a cut-off at a few gigaelectronvolts. Together with the detection of pulsed γ-rays from two MSPs in two different globular clusters, such spectral signature lends support to the hypothesis that γ-rays from globular clusters represent collective curvature emission from magnetospheres of MSPs in the clusters. Alternative models, involving Inverse-Compton (IC) emission of relativistic electrons that are accelerated close to MSPs or pulsar wind nebula shocks, have also been suggested. Observations at >100 GeV by using Fermi/LAT and atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes such as H.E.S.S.-II, MAGIC-II, VERITAS, and CTA will help to settle some questions unanswered by current data.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.75-85
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• 2002

We present N-body simulations of globular clusters including gravitational field of the Galaxy, in order to study effects of tidal field systematically on the shape of outer parts of globular clusters using NBODY6. The Galaxy is assumed to be composed of central bulge and outer halo. We mvestigate the cluster of multi-mass models with a power-law initial mass function (IMF) starting with different initial masses, initial number of particles, different slopes of the IMF and different orbits of the cluster. We have examined the general evolution of the clusters, the shape of outer parts of the clusters, density profiles and the direction of tidal tails. The density profiles appear to become somewhat shallower just outside the tidal boundary consistent with some observed data. The position angle of the tidal tall depends on the location in the Galaxy as well as the direction of the motion of. clusters. We found that the clusters become more elongated at the apogalacticon than at the pengalacticon. The tidal tails may be used to trace the orbital paths of globular clusters.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.76-76
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• 2013

The current hierarchical model of galaxy formation predicts that galaxy halos contain merger relics in the form of long stellar streams. In order to find stellar substructures in galaxy, we focused our investigation on the stellar spatial density around globular clusters and on the quantitative properties of the evolved sequences in the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). First, we investigated the spatial configuration of stars around five metal-poor globular clusters in halo region (M15, M30, M53, NGC 5053, and NGC 5466) and one metal-poor globular cluster in bulge region (NGC 6626). Our findings indicate that all of these globular clusters show strong evidence of extratidal features in the form of extended tidal tails around the clusters. The orientations of the extratidal features show the signatures of tidal tails tracing the clusters' orbits and the effects of dynamical interactions with the galaxy. These features were also confirmed by the radial surface density profiles and azimuthal number density profiles. Our results suggest that these six globular clusters are potentially associated with the satellite galaxies merged into the Milky Way. Second, we derived the morphological parameters of the red giant branch (RGB) from the near-infrared CMDs of 12 metal-poor globular clusters in the Galactic bulge. The photometric RGB shape indices such as colors at fixed magnitudes, magnitudes at fixed colors, and the RGB slope were measured for each cluster. The magnitudes of the RGB bump and tip were also estimated. The derived RGB parameters were used to examine the overall behavior of the RGB morphology as a function of cluster metallicity. The behavior of the RGB shape parameters was also compared with the previous observational calibration relation and theoretical predictions of the Yonsei-Yale isochrones. Our results of studies for stellar spatial distribution around globular clusters and the morphological properties of RGB stars in globular clusters could add further observational evidence of merging scenario of galaxy formation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.51.1-51.1
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• 2014

The Virgo cluster, the nearest galaxy cluster, is dynamically young, hosting numerous globular clusters in galaxies as well as intracluster globular clusters (IGCs). We obtained spectra of globular cluster candidates in the core region of the Virgo cluster using Hectospec at MMT to study the kinematics of the globular clusters. The targets are located at a large range (50 kpc < d < 500 kpc) from M87, the most massive galaxy in Virgo. We distinguish the genuine globular cluster population in the targets by inspecting their spectral features and radial velocities. As a result, a significant number of IGCs are found. We present preliminary results of the kinematics of globular clusters in the Virgo core region.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.45.3-46
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• 2015

We present a spectroscopic study of globular clusters in the M81 group that is one of the ideal laboratories for understanding mass assembly and evolution of galaxies, such as M81, the twin galaxy of the Milky Way, and the starburst galaxy M82, in the group environments. Spectra of about 800 globular cluster candidates are obtained using MMT/Hectospec, and about one hundred globular clusters are confirmed by their radial velocities. Based on the kinematics derived from the spectra, we have found that most globular clusters rotate around M81. We have also discovered more than ten globular clusters belonging to M82, and that their kinematics is different from that of young star clusters in the disk of M82. There are few candidates of intra-group globular clusters. We will discuss the implications of these results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.78.1-78.1
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• 2013

The hierarchical model of galaxy formation predicts that galaxy halos contain merger relics in the form of long stellar stream. Thus, tidal substructure of stars around globular clusters, such as tidal tails, could be an essential evidence of the merging scenario in the formation of the Galaxy. From April 2010 to December 2012, we obtained $45^{\prime}{\times}45^{\prime}$ wide-field JHKs near-infrared photometric imaging data for about 20 globular clusters in the Milky Way, and examined the stellar density distribution around globular clusters. Here, we introduce the preliminary results of stellar spatial distributions and radial surface density profiles of four globular clusters. In order to minimize the field star contamination and identify the cluster's member candidates stars, we used a statistical filtering algorithm and gave weights on the CMDs of globular clusters. In two-dimensional stellar density maps, we could found tidal stripping structures for some globular clusters. The orientation of tidal substructure seems to associate with the effects of dynamical interactions with the Galaxy and cluster's orbit. Indeed, the radial surface density profile accurately describes this stripping structures as a break in the slope of profile. The observational results could give us further observational evidence of merging scenario of the formation of the Galaxy.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.189-212
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• 2003

I review the current status of understanding when, how long, and how giant elliptical galaxies formed, focusing on the globular clusters. Several observational evidences show that massive elliptical galaxies formed at z > 2 (> 10 Gyr ago). Giant elliptical galaxies show mostly a bimodal color distribution of globular clusters, indicating a factor of $\approx$ 20 metallicity difference between the two peaks. The red globular clusters (RGCs) are closely related with the stellar halo in color and spatial distribution, while the blue globular clusters (BGCs) are not. The ratio of the number of the RGCs and that of the BGCs varies depending on galaxies. It is concluded that the BGCs might have formed 12-13 Gyr ago, while the RGCs and giant elliptical galaxies might have formed similarly 10-11 Gyr ago. It remains now to explain the existence of a gap between the RGC formation epoch and the BGC formation epoch, and the rapid metallicity increase during the gap (${\Delta}t{\approx}$ 2 Gyr). If hierarchical merging can form a significant number of giant elliptical galaxies > 10 Gyr ago, several observational constraints from stars and globular clusters in elliptical galaxies can be explained.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.135-139
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• 2010

We present the result of our investigation on the impact of the low Solar abundance of Asplund and collaborators (2004) on the derived ages for the oldest star clusters based on isochrone fittings. We have constructed new stellar models and corresponding isochrones using this new solar mixture with a proper Solar calibration. We have found that the use of the Asplund et al. (2004) metallicity causes the typical ages for old globular clusters in the Milky Way to be increased roughly by 10%. Although this may appear small, it has a significant impact on the interpretation for the formation epoch of Milky Way globular clusters. The Asplund et al. (2004) abundance may not necessarily threaten the current concordance cosmology but would suggest that Milky Way globular clusters formed before the reionization epoch and before the main galaxy body starts to build up. This is in contrast to the current understanding on the galaxy formation.