• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.101-105
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• 2010

Taking the great advantage of Subaru's wide field coverage both in the optical and in the near infrared, we have been providing panoramic views of distant clusters and their surrounding environments over the wide redshift range of 0:4 < z < 3. From our unique data sets, a consistent picture has been emerging that the star forming activity is once enhanced and then truncated in galaxy groups in the outskirts of clusters during the course of cluster assembly at z < 1. Such activity is shifted into cluster cores as we go further back in time to z ~ 1.5. At z = 2 - 2.5, we begin to enter the epoch when massive galaxies are actually forming in the cluster core. And by z ~ 3, we eventually go beyond the major epoch of massive galaxy formation. It is likely that the environmental dependence of star forming activity is at least partly due to the external environmental effects such as galaxy-galaxy interaction in medium density regions at z < 1, while the intrinsic effect of galaxy formation bias overtakes the external effect at higher redshifts, resulting in a large star formation activity in the cluster center.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.265-268
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• 2004

Molecular clouds present many levels of structure, including clumps and cores of varying size and density. We present a brief summary of these cores, describing their observed physical properties and their place in the star formation process. We conclude with some speculation about pre-proto-stellar stages of molecular cores and the observational challenges in their observation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.40.1-40.1
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• 2017

Massive early-type galaxies (ETG) have been spectroscopically confirmed up to z>3 which, together with their ages and abundances at z>1.5, implies that their progenitors must have converted gas into stars on short timescales. The termination of star formation in these galaxies can occur through several channels, but they remain largely conjectural, in part due to the current lack of direct measurements of the amount of residual gas in high redshift ETGs. Here I will present constraints on the star formation rate and dust/gas content of z=1.4-2.5 ETGs. These galaxies, close to their epoch of quenching, contained more than 2 orders of magnitude more dust than their local counterparts, which suggests the presence of substantial amounts of gas and a low star formation efficiency.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.99-101
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• 2015

Massive stars are some of the most influential objects in the Universe, shaping the evolution of galaxies, creating chemical elements and hence shaping the evolution of the Universe. However, the processes by which they form and how they shape their environment during their birth processes are not well understood. We use $NH_3$ data from "The $H_2O$ Southern Galactic Plane Survey" (HOPS) survey to define the positions of dense cores/clumps of gas in the southern Galactic plane that are likely to form stars. Then, using data from "The Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz" (MALT90) survey, we search for the presence of infall and outflow associated with these cores. We subsequently use the "3D Molecular Line Radiative Transfer Code" (MOLLIE) to constrain properties of the infall and outflow, such as velocity and mass flow. The aim of the project is to determine how common infall and outflow are in star forming cores, and therefore to provide valuable constraints on the timescales and physical process involved in massive star formation. Preliminary results are presented here.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.53-58
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• 2010

The origin of the galaxies represents an important focus of current cosmological research, both observational and theoretical. Its resolution involves a comprehensive understanding of star formation and evolution, galaxy dynamics, supermassive black holes, and the cosmology of the very early universe. In this paper, I will review our current understanding of galaxy formation and review some of the challenges that lie ahead. Specific issues that I address include the galaxy luminosity function, feedback by supernovae and by AGN, and downsizing. I argue that current evidence favours two distinct modes of star formation in the early universe, in order to account for the origin of disk and massive spheroidal galaxies. However perhaps the most urgent need is for a robust theory of star formation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.60.2-60.2
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• 2014

Hierarchical structure of star-forming regions is widespread and may be characteristic of all star formation. We studied the hierarchical structure of star-forming regions in the Local Group galaxies (M31, M33, Phoenix, Pegasus, Sextans A, Sextans B, WLM). The star-forming regions were selected from Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) far-UV imaging in various detection thresholds for investigating hierarchical structure. We examined the spatial distribution of the hot massive stars within star-forming regions from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) multi-band photometry. Small compact groups arranged within large complexes. The cumulative mass distribution follows a power law. The results allow us to understand the hierarchical structure of star formation and recent evolution of the Local Group galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.43.1-43.1
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• 2018

Star formation in galaxies predominantly takes place in giant molecular clouds (GMCs). While it is widely believed that UV radiation feedback from young massive stars can destroy natal GMCs by exciting HII regions and driving their expansion, our understanding on how this actually occurs remains incomplete. To quantitatively assess the effect of UV radiation feedback on cloud disruption, we conduct a series of theoretical studies on the dynamics of HII regions and its role in controlling the star formation efficiency (SFE) and lifetime of GMCs in a wide range of star-forming environments. We first develop a semi-analytic model for the expansion of spherical dusty HII regions driven by the combination of gas and radiation pressures, finding that GMCs in normal disk galaxies are destroyed by gas-pressure driven expansion with SFE < 10%, while more dense and massive clouds with higher SFE are disrupted primarily by radiation pressure. Next, we turn to radiation hydrodynamic simulations of GMC dispersal to allow for self-consistent star formation as well as inhomogeneous density and velocity structures arising from supersonic turbulence. For this, we develop an efficient parallel algorithm for ray tracing method, which enables us to probe a range of cloud masses and sizes. Our parameter study shows that the net SFE, lifetime (measured in units of free-fall time), and the importance of radiation pressure (relative to photoionization) increase primarily with the initial surface density of the cloud. Unlike in the idealized spherical model, we find that the dominant mass loss mechanism is photoevaporation rather than dynamical ejection and that a significant fraction of radiation escapes through low optical-depth channels. We will discuss the astronomical.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.58.1-58.1
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• 2011

We present elemental abundances of 95 blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDs) at z=0.2~0.35 using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7. We derived element abundances using Te method. We found that nitrogen abundance of merging BCDs are more enriched than normal BCDs by fast rotating young massive star. On the other hand, neon and oxygen abundances for merging BCDs are slightly lower than the normal BCDs. This might be result from the dilution by metal-poor gas infall during the interaction. This means that merging BCDs undergone star formation event for a long time than normal BCDs and we trying to explain using STARLIGHT code and various star formation rates (SFRs) ratios. At a result, merging BCDs have older stellar population (>10 Myr) more than normal BCDs and have clear distinction in elements abundances versus Ha/UV diagram. We also discuss the characteristics of post merger candidate using FUV to NUV ratios.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.21-30
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• 2018

Formation processes of high-mass stars have been long-standing issues in astronomy and astrophysics. This is mainly because of major difficulties in observational studies such as a smaller number of high-mass young stellar objects (YSOs), larger distances, and more complex structures in young high-mass clusters compared with nearby low-mass isolated star-forming regions (SFRs), and extremely large opacity of interstellar dust except for centimeter to submillimeter wavelengths. High resolution and high sensitivity observations with Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) at millimeter/submillimeter wavelengths will overcome these observational difficulties even for statistical studies with increasing number of high-mass YSO samples. This review will summarize recent progresses in high-mass star-formation studies with ALMA such as clumps and filaments in giant molecular cloud complexes and infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), protostellar disks and outflows in dense cores, chemistry, masers, and accretion bursts in high-mass SFRs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.38.1-38.1
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• 2019

The formation and evolution of galaxies is known to be fundamentally linked to the local environment in which they reside. In the highest-density cluster environments, galaxies tend to be more massive, have lower star formation rates and dust content, and a higher fraction have elliptical morphologies. The stellar populations of these cluster galaxies are older implying that they formed the bulk of their stars much earlier and have since evolved passively. Quantifying the specific environmental factors that contribute to shaping cluster galaxies over the Hubble time and measuring their early evolution can only be accomplished by directly tracing the galaxy growth in young clusters and forming porto-clusters. In this talk, I will present a novel technique designed to map out the total dust obscured star formation relative to where existing stars lie. I will demonstrate that this technique can be used 1) to determine if/where/when the activity is heightened or suppressed in dense cluster environment; 2) to measure the total mass and spatial distribution of stellar populations; and 3) to better inform theoretical models. Our ongoing work to extend this analysis out to protoclusters (z~2-4) will be discussed.