• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.51.1-51.1
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• 2019

At the commissioning phase of KVN from 2009 to 2013, single-dish survey and monitoring observations were performed toward about 1000 evolved stars and about 60 relatively strong SiO and H2O maser sources respectively. Based on these single-dish results and VLBI feasibility test observations at K/Q/W/D bands in 2014, KVN Key Science Project (KSP) has started from 2015 and will be completed in 2019 as KSP phase I. Here we present the overview of observational studies on evolved stars using KVN. In KSP phase I, we have focused on nine KSP sources which show a successful astrometrically registered maps of SiO and H2O masers using the source frequency phase referencing method. We aim at investigating the spatial structure and dynamical effect from 43/42/86/129 GHz SiO to 22 GHz H2O maser regions associated with a stellar pulsation and development of asymmetry in circumstellar envelopes. Using the combined network KaVA (KVN+Japanese VLBI network VERA), KaVA Large Program titled on "Expanded Study on Stellar Masers: ESTEMA Phase I" was performed from 2015 to 2016. Based on ESTEMA Phase I, EAVN Large Program titled on "EAVN Synthesis of Stellar Maser Animations: ESTEMA Phase II" was also performed from 2018. The ESTEMA II project aims to publish composite animations of circumstellar H2O and SiO masers, which taken from up to 6 long-period variable stars with a variety of the pulsation periods (333-1000 days). The animations will exhibit the three-dimensional kinematics of the maser gas clumps with complexity caused by stellar pulsation-driven shock waves and anisotropy of clump ejections from the stellar surface. Adding three EAVN telescopes (Tianma 65m, Nanshan 26m and NRO 45m telescopes) with KaVA always secures the high quality of the maser image frames through the monitoring program.

• 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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.51.1-51.1
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• 2010

We present the interim results of simultaneous observations of SiO and H2O masers toward 401 known stellar SiO and/or H2O maser sources (166 both SiO and H2O maser sources, 83 only SiO maser sources, and 152 only H2O maser sources) using KVN_Yonsei telescope. The results of 166 known SiO/H2O maser sources will be presented by Kim et al. and the results of 83 only SiO maser sources and 152 only H2O maser sources presented here. Both SiO and H2O maser emission were detected from 30 sources giving a detection rate of 36 % toward known 83 only SiO maser sources, while they were detected from 66 sources giving a detection rate of 43 % toward known 152 only H2O maser sources at one epoch observation. Only SiO masers were detected from 42 sources toward 83 only SiO sources, while they were detected from 28 sources toward 152 only H2O sources. Characteristics of these observed sources in the IRAS two-color diagram is investigated including mutual relations between SiO and H2O maser emission. In addition, these results will be useful for statistical study of late-type stars and future VLBI observations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.83.2-83.2
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• 2012

We have carried out simultaneous 22GHz $H_2O$ and 44GHz Class I $CH_3OH$ maser survey of 112 ultra-compact HII regions (UCHIIs) twice in 2010 and 2011. We detected $H_2O$ maser and $CH_3OH$ maser emission from 76(68%) and 49(44%) UCHIIs, respectively. Among them 15 $H_2O$ masers and 32 $CH_3OH$ masers are new detections. These high detection rates suggest that the occurrence periods of both masers are significantly overlapped with the UCHII phase. $CH_3OH$ masers always have small (<10 km s-1) relative velocities with respect to the natal molecular cores, while $H_2O$ masers often show larger velocities. We find 20 UCHIIs with $H_2O$ maser lines at relative velocities >30 km s-1. The formation and disappearance of $H_2O$ masers is frequent over one-year time interval. In contrast, $CH_3OH$ masers usually do not show substantial variation in intensity, velocity, or shape. The isotropic luminosities of both masers well correlate with the bolometric luminosities of the central stars when data points of lowand intermediate-mass protostars are added: $L_{H_2O}=5.89{\times}10^{-9}{(L_{bol})^{0.69}}$ and $L_{CH_3OH}=4.27{\times}10^{-9}{(L_{bol})^{0.62}}$. They also tend to increase with the 2cm radio continuum luminosity of UCHIIs and the 850 um continuum luminosity of the associated molecular cores. We discuss some individual sources.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59.2-59.2
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• 2015

We present the results of simultaneous observations of the H2O and SiO masers emitted from the circumstellar envelopes of the late-type stars. These observations have been carried out at the K and Q bands using KVN since 2014 August and were scheduled to test the feasibility of multi-frequency phase referencing analysis on the maser lines. In order to increase the accuracy of group delay solution in the fringe search on the continuum source, the IF channels were randomly distributed within the available bandwidth of 500 MHz in each band. The positions of all maser spots are relatively described with respect to the position of the reference continuum source through the source frequency phase referencing technique, and this provides the astrometric position accuracy. Therefore, the relative locations of the H2O maser spots with respect to the SiO maser spots are determined from our observations, and the capability of the simultaneous multi-band observation of KVN is proved to be powerful to study the maser pumping mechanism around the late-type stars.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.139-146
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• 2012

We investigate the properties of OH, SiO, and $H_2O$ maser emission in O-rich AGB stars. We use a sample of 3373 objects, which is an updated version of the list of O-rich AGB stars presented in Suh & Kwon (2011). We divide the 3373 O-rich AGB stars into four different groups based on the maser emission: OH maser sources (1533), SiO sources (1627), $H_2O$ sources (452), and sources with no maser (610). To understand the nature of the maser sources, we present various infrared two-color diagrams (2CDs) using IRAS, 2MASS, and AKARI data. For each group, we compare the positions on various infrared 2CDs with theoretical models. We find that the OH maser sources generally show larger color indices and larger dust optical depths than SiO or $H_2O$ sources. We suggest that the differences of the color indices for different maser sources are due to different mass-loss rates and dust formation processes.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.49.2-49.2
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• 2021

We present the results of long-term simultaneous monitoring observations (~ 12 years) of H²O (22 GHz) maser and several vibrationally excited lines of SiO J = 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 masers (43, 86, 129 GHz) carried out with the 21-m antennas of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) toward a sample of three AGB stars (RT Vir, RR Aql, IRC-10151) that are believed to be semiregular variable star, Mira variable star, and OH/IR star, respectively, according to a sequential evolutionary phase of AGB star. A total 10 transitions were observed, of which we detected H²O, SiO 𝝊 = 1 and 2, J = 1-0, SiO 𝝊 = 1, J = 2-1 and J = 3-2 maser lines in all three target objects, depending on the observational epochs. In this study, we scrutinize the evolutionary traits of each target object based on the maser line profiles, flux/velocity variations, and phase lags with the optical light curves. The IRAS two color diagram and the infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in the wavelength range from 1.2 to 240 ㎛ of three observed sources were also analyzed.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.237.2-237.2
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• 2012

We performed simultaneous observations of SiO v=1, 2, $^{29}SiO$ v=0, J=1-0 and $H_2O$ $6_{16}-5_{23}$ maser lines toward 132 AGB and 183 post-AGB stars in order to investigate how evolutionary characteristics from AGB to post-AGB stars appear in these two maser emissions. The observations were carried out from 2011 February to 2012 March using the Korean VLBI Network 21-m radio telescopes. We have detected SiO and/or $H_2O$ maser emission from 29 sources out of 183 post-AGB stars including 19 new detections. Of 132 AGB stars which are mainly selected based on the IRAS Point Source Catalog, we detected SiO and/or $H_2O$ maser emission from 38 stars including 18 newly detected sources. An evolutionary characteristic from AGB to post-AGB stars is discussed in IRAS two-color diagram. It is found that SiO v=2, J=1-0 maser emission without SiO v=1 maser detections was detected from 8 sources among 21 SiO detected post-AGB stars and the intensity of SiO v=2, J=1-0 maser tends to be much stronger than that of SiO v=1. We also found that for the post-AGB stars the maser detection rate of blue group sources (which have higher outflow velocities than red group) are higher than that of red group. Especially, only $H_2O$ maser emission was detected from 7 sources among 94 red group sources without SiO maser detections.

• 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.

• 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 $M_K=3.51logP+1.37{\pm}0.07$.