• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.77.2-77.2
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• 2013

We present the interim results of simultaneous time monitoring observations of $^{28}SiO$ v = 1, 2, J = 1-0, $^{29}SiO$ v = 0, J = 1-0 and $H_2O$ $6_{16}-5_{23}$ maser lines toward 10 known water fountain sources at a post-AGB stage. The observations have been carried out from 2009 June to 2013 September using the 21m single dish radio telescopes of the Korean VLBI Network. From six sources, we detected well separated red- and blue-shifted $H_2O$ maser features with large velocity ranges more than 100 km $s^{-1}$. From four sources, we detected red- and/or blue-shifted $H_2O$ maser features depended on observational epochs. However, we could not detected SiO maser emission from any sources and any epochs. For a representative water fountain source W43A, we obtained $H_2O$ maser spectra at 17 epochs which show a clear bipolar and discontinuous mass ejections. They also showed a periodic change between red-shifted and blue-shifted peaks. However, we need a more regular and short-time interval monitoring observations in order to fix the period and peak intensity variation interval.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.67.2-67.2
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• 2019

We present the results of KVN and ALMA observations toward WX Psc (IRC+10011) which is a long-period variable OH/IR star. The SiO masers of v=1 and v=2, J=5-4, and the SiO thermal emission of v=0, J=5-4 were observed together with H2O v2=1 (232.6 GHz) and continuum emission at ALMA Band 6 in October 2017 (Cycle 5). This observation aims to investigate the physical association between the inner and outer parts of the circumstellar envelope (CSE) swept by the stellar winds, which is very crucial to understand the asymmetric outward motions developed during the evolutionary phases from the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars to the planetary nebulae (PNe). The strong SiO maser features and thermal emissions are detected together with the continuum emission in ALMA observation, which imply the elongated morphology of the CSE of WX Psc. While the spatial resolution of about 20 mas in ALMA observation cannot clearly resolve the detailed characteristics of the inner part of the CSE, the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) observations show the spatial distributions of the v=1 J=1-0, J=2-1, J=3-2 SiO masers emitted from the inner regions of CSE, which are the complementary to the ALMA results. Therefore, we expect these results reveal how the bipolar features of the 22 GHz H2O maser are connected to the innermost region of CSE through the dust condensation region, which is closely related to the enormous mass ejection of the evolved stars.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.365-380
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• 2015

We map 6 massive young stellar objects (YSOs) in the CO J=2-1 line and survey 18 massive YSOs, including the six, in the HCO⁺ J=1−0, SiO J=2−1, H₂O 6₁₆ − 5₂₃ maser, and CH₃OH 7₀ − 6₁ A⁺ maser lines. We detect CO bipolar outflows in all the six mapped sources. Four of them are newly discovered (07299−1651, 21306+5540, 22308+5812, 23133+6050), while 05490+2658 is mapped in the CO J=2-1 line for the first time. The detected outflows are much more massive and energetic than outflows from low-mass YSOs with masses >20 M_⊙ and momenta >300 M_⊙ km s⁻¹. They have mass outflow rates (3−6)×10⁻⁴ M_⊙ yr⁻¹, which are at least one order of magnitude greater than those observed in low-mass YSOs. We detect HCO⁺ and SiO line emission in 18 (100%) and 4 (22%) sources, respectively. The HCO⁺ spectra show high-velocity wings in 11 (61%) sources. We detect H₂O maser emission in 13 (72%) sources and 44 GHz CH₃OH maser emission in 8 (44%) sources. Of the detected sources, 5 H₂O and 6 CH₃OH maser sources are new discoveries. 20081+3122 shows high-velocity (>30 km s⁻¹) H₂O maser lines. We find good correlations of the bolometric luminosity of the central (proto)star with the mechanical force, mechanical luminosity, and mass outflow rate of molecular outflow in the bolometric luminosity range of 10⁻¹−10⁶ L_⊙, and identified 3 intermediate- or high-mass counterparts of Class O objects.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.32-32
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• 2013

The Korean VLBI Network (KVN) as a world-first multi-frequency VLBI system is operated at four bands of 22, 43, 86, and 129 GHz simultaneously. The performances of both single dish and VLBI network were already confirmed through single dish researches and VLBI evaluation test observations. The VLBI common use of the KVN at 22/43 GHz bands has been started from this autumn. The combined network of KVN and Japanese VERA (KaVA) will start the common use from the first half of next year. Here we present several observational results in the fields of star forming regions, late-type stars, and active galactic nuclei using the KVN and KaVA. The fringes of 44 GHz $CH_3OH$ (Class I) masers were detected from 26 sources for the first time using the KVN and imaging observations are under performing. Simultaneous observations of SiO and $H_2O$ masers toward about 1000 evolved stars showed the different maser properties between SiO and $H_2O$ masers according to the evolutionary stages of AGB and post-AGB stars. The catalog of correlated flux densities were established from a 43 GHz (Q-band) survey of 637 extragalactic sources. At 22 GHz (K-band), flux density measurement and fringe survey for new sources were performed toward a large number of sources. In addition, the large program of KVN and/or KaVA under planning is introduced.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.189-191
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• 2015

The calibration of the period luminosity relation (PLR) for Galactic Mira variables is one of the principle aims of the VERA project. We observe $H_2O$ maser emission at 22 GHz associated with Mira variables in order to determine their distances based on annual parallaxes. We conduct multi-epoch VLBI observations over 1-2 years with a typical interval of one month using VERA in order to obtain annual parallaxes with an accuracy of better than than 10%. Recently, the annnual parallax of T Lep was determined to be $3.06{\pm}0.04$ mas corresponding to a distance of $327{\pm}4pc$ (Nakagawa et al., 2014). The circumstellar distribution and kinematics of $H_2O$ masers was also revealed. With accurate distances to the sources, calibrations of K-band absolute magnitudes ($M_K$) can be improved compared to conventional studies. By compiling Mira variables whose distances were determined with astrometric VLBI, we obtained a PLR of $M_K=3.51logP+1.37{\pm}0.07$.