• 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.

• 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.35 no.1
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• pp.72.1-72.1
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• 2010

Gas materials in the inner Galactic disk continuously migrate toward the Galactic center (GC) due to interactions with the bar potential, magnetic fields, stars, and other gaseous materials. In case of the Milky Way, those in forms of molecules appear to accumulate around 200 pc from the center (the central molecular zone, CMZ) to form stars there and further inside. The bar potential in the GC is thought to be responsible for such acculmulation of molecules and subsequent star formation, which is believed to have been continous throughout the lifetime of the Galaxy. We present 3-D hydrodynamic simulations of the CMZ that consider self-gravity, radiative cooling, and supernova feedback, and discuss the efficiency and role of the star formation in that region. We find that the gas accumulated in the CMZ by a bar potential of the inner bulge effectively turns into stars, supporting the idea that the stellar cusp inside the central 200 pc is a result of the sustained star formation in the CMZ. The obtained star formation rate in the CMZ, 0.03-0.1 Msun, is consistent with the recent estimate based on the mid-infrared observations by Yusef-Zadeh et al. We discuss the secular evolution of nuclear bulges in general, based on our results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.50.2-50.2
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• 2021

There is increasing evidence that the convective mixing length (α) in stellar evolution models depends on metallicity of stars. In order to confirm a more precise metallicity-dependent mixing length trend, we investigate the effective temperature and metallicity of 14 red supergiant stars (RSGs) in the irregular dwarf galaxy IC 1613 using the near-infrared spectra observed with the MMIRS on the MMT telescope. From the synthetic spectral fitting to the observed spectra, we find that the mean metallicity is about [Fe/H]=0.69 with a weak bimodal distribution. We also find that the effective temperature of RSGs in IC 1613 is higher by about 250 K than that of the SMC on average. We compare the RSG position with stellar evolutionary tracks on the HR diagram, finding that models with α = 2.2-2.4 H_p can best reproduce the effective temperatures of the RSGs in IC 1613. It is evident that the mixing length values for IC 1613 is lower than that of the Milky Way. This result supports our previous study on a metallicity-dependent mixing length: mixing length decreases with decreasing metallicity of host galaxies. However, this dependency becomes relatively weak for RSGs having a metallicity equal to or less than the SMC metallicity.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.175-184
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• 2003

To investigate the SEDs of galaxies considering the dust extinction processes in the galactic disks, we present the population synthesis models for normal galaxies with dusty disks. We use PEGASE (Fioc & Rocca-Volmerange 1997) to model them with standard input parameters for stars and new dust parameters. We find that the model results are strongly dependent on the dust parameters as well as other parameters (e.g. star formation history). We compare the model results with the observations and discuss about the possible explanations. We find that the dust opacity functions derived from studies of asymptotic giant branch stars are useful for modeling a galaxy with a dusty disk.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.65.1-65.1
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• 2014

We present Palomar/SWIFT integral field spectroscopy of z~0.2 strong $H{\alpha}$ emitters identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The large Halpha equivalent widths as well as the huge specific star formation rates of these galaxies are comparable with that of z>4 Lyman break galaxies, thus understanding the gas kinematics and the distribution of massive stars in these systems will help to obtain a better understanding of high-redshift star forming environments and the growth of massive galaxies. We measure the velocity dispersion across the entire galaxy, estimate the number density and the spatial distribution of massive stars from the emission line morphologies. The role of minor mergers in powering star formation is investigated as an alternative to cold flow driven star formation.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.155-166
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• 1992

We observed a total of 14 Mira variables as well as 4 late type variable stars for their SiO ${\nu}= 1$, J = 2 - 1 maser lines from April 1989 to November 1990 with the 13.7 m radio telescope at Daeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory. The maser intensity variations were the prime objective of the observations which well covered the periods of the variations. The origion of the variations were studied by comparing wi th those previousely measured in optical and infrared(IR) wavelengths and we confirmed that the intensity variations were in good correlation with those in V magnitude and IR intensity as previousely found in former investigators in general. However, for a few sources, we could find the missing maxima. The intensities themselves also were in good correlation with SiO ${\nu}\;=\;1$, J = 1 - 0 maser intensities observed in Yebes as expected. The good correlations indicate that the pumping source of the SiO maser is likely to be the IR emission in the masing regions and the "missing maxima" that are apparent in two particular sources are considered to relate wi th the strength of shocks arising from the eruptive mass-loss from central stars.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2014

Phosphorus ($^{31}P$), which is essential for life, is thought to be synthesized in massive stars and dispersed into interstellar space when these stars explode as supernovae (SNe). Here we report on near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the young SN remnant Cassiopeia A, which show that the abundance ratio of phosphorus to the major nucleosynthetic product iron ($^{56}Fe$) in SN material is up to 100 times the average ratio of the Milky Way, confirming that phosphorus is produced in SNe. The observed range is compatible with predictions from SN nucleosynthetic models but not with the scenario in which the chemical elements in the inner SN layers are completely mixed by hydrodynamic instabilities during the explosion.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.179-182
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• 2015

Dust has recently been found to be prevalent in compact binaries such as non-magnetic Cataclysmic Variable systems. As a possible source of this dust is from solid bodies, we explore impacts to non-magnetic Cataclysmic Variable disks. We use three-dimensional Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic simulations to search for impact signatures. From injections of whole bodies to these disks, we find pulse shapes in simulated bolometric light curves that resemble impact flashes in the light curves of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 event. As a result, we tentatively identify these light curve shapes as signatures of impacts.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2017

Like Hipparcos, Gaia is designed to give absolute parallaxes, independent of any astrophysical reference system. And indeed, Gaia's internal zero-point error for parallaxes is likely to be smaller than any individual parallax error. Nevertheless, due in part to mechanical issues of unknown origin, there are many astrophysical questions for which the parallax zero-point error ${\sigma}({\pi}_0)$ will be the fundamentally limiting constraint. These include the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galactic Center. We show that by using the photometric parallax estimates for RR Lyrae stars (RRL) within 8kpc, via the ultra-precise infrared period-luminosity relation, one can independently determine a hyper-precise value for ${\pi}_0$. Despite their paucity relative to bright quasars, we show that RRL are competitive due to their order-of-magnitude improved parallax precision for each individual object relative to bright quasars. We show that this method is mathematically robust and well-approximated by analytic formulae over a wide range of relevant distances.