• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.56.1-56.1
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• 2008

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.37.2-37.2
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• 2017

Since the discovery of quasars about a half century ago, it has been an open question what triggers supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. I will talk about AGNs and their host galaxies in the context of galaxy assembly and evolution. In particular, I will focus on the fundamental, but unanswered question whether black holes play a key role in galaxy evolution from my personal perspective.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.405-407
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• 2015

We describe a survey of quasars in the early universe, beyond z ~ 5, which is one of the main science goals of the Infrared Medium-deep Survey (IMS) conducted by the Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe (CEOU). We use multi-wavelength archival data from SDSS, CFHTLS, UKIDSS, WISE, and SWIRE, which provide deep images over wide areas suitable for searching for high redshift quasars. In addition, we carried out a J-band imaging survey at the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope with a depth of ~23 AB mag and survey area of ${\sim}120deg^2$, which makes IMS a suitable survey for finding faint, high redshift quasars at z ~ 7. In addition, for the quasar candidates at z ~ 5.5, we are conducting observations with the Camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (CQUEAN) on the 2.1m telescope at McDonald Observatory, which has a custom-designed filter set installed to enhance the efficiency of selecting robust quasar candidate samples in this redshift range. We used various color-color diagrams suitable for the specific redshift ranges, which can reduce contaminating sources such as M/L/T dwarfs, low redshift galaxies, and instrumental defects. The high redshift quasars we are confirming can provide us with clues to the growth of supermassive black holes since z ~ 7. By expanding the quasar sample at 5 < z < 7, the final stage of the hydrogen reionization in the intergalactic medium (IGM) can also be fully understood. Moreover, we can make useful constraints on the quasar luminosity function to study the contribution of quasars to the IGM reionization.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.28.2-28.2
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• 2015

High redshift quasars (z > 5) hold keys to understanding the evolution of the universe in its early stage. Yet, the number of high redshift quasars uncovered from previous studies is relatively small (70 or so), and are concentrated mostly in a limited redshift range (z ~ 6). To understand the early mass growth of supermassive black holes and the final stage of the cosmic reionization, it is important to find a statistically meaningful sample of quasars with various physical properties. Here we present a survey for high redshift quasars at 5 < z < 7. Through color selection techniques using multi-wavelength data, we found quasar candidates and carried out imaging follow-up observations to reduce contaminants. After optical spectroscopy, we discovered eight new quasars. We obtained near-infrared spectra for 3 of these 8 quasars, measured their physical properties such as black hole masses and Eddington ratios, and found that the high redshift quasars we discovered are growing via accretion more vigorous than those of their lower redshift counterparts. We estimated the quasar number densities from our discoveries and compared them to those expected from the quasar luminosity functions in literature. In contrast to the observed number density of quasars at z ~ 5, which agrees with literature, the observed number density at z ~ 7 shows values lower than what is expected, even after considering an extrapolated number density evolution. We conclude that the quasar number density at z ~ 7 declines toward higher redshift, more steeply than the empirically expected evolution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.78.3-78.3
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• 2015

About 70 high redshift quasars with $z{\geq}5$ have been discovered through combinations of standard broad-band filters to distinguish them from contaminating sources. However, among the discovered quasars so far, there is a redshift gap at $5{\leq}z{\leq}6$ due to the limitation of traditional filter sets and selection techniques. To understand the early mass growth of supermassive black holes and the final stage of the cosmic reionization, it is important to find a statistically meaningful sample of quasars with various physical properties. Here we suggest a new selection technique of high redshift quasars using medium-band filters: nine filters with bandwidths of 50nm and central wavelengths from 625 to 1025nm. Photometry with these medium-bands traces the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a source, similar to spectroscopy with R~15. We installed these filters to SED camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (SQUEAN) on the 2.1m telescope at McDonald Observatory, and conducted test observations of known high redshift quasars at $4.7{\leq}z{\leq}6.1$ and also dwarf stars for comparison. We found differences in SED shapes between high redshift quasars and dwarf stars, determined their locations on color-color diagrams, and demonstrated that the medium-band filters can enhance the efficiency of selecting robust quasar candidates in this redshift range. In this poster, we propose an effective selection method of high redshift quasars using these medium-band filters and discuss its effect on our high redshift quasar survey.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.203-206
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• 2015

The masses of supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can be derived spectroscopically via virial mass estimators based on selected broad optical/ultraviolet emission lines. These estimates commonly use the line width as a proxy for the gas speed and the monochromatic continuum luminosity, λL_λ, as a proxy for the radius of the broad line region. However, if the size of the broad line region scales with the bolometric AGN luminosity rather than λL_λ, mass estimates based on different emission lines will show a systematic discrepancy which is a function of the color of the AGN continuum. This has actually been observed in mass estimates based on Hα/Hβ and C_IV lines, indicating that AGN broad line regions indeed scale with bolometric luminosity. Given that this effect seems to have been overlooked as yet, currently used single-epoch mass estimates are likely to be biased.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.25-35
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• 2016

Multiple color selection techniques are successful in identifying quasars from wide-field broadband imaging survey data. Among the quasars that have been discovered so far, however, there is a redshift gap at 5 ≲ z ≲ 5.7 due to the limitations of filter sets in previous studies. In this work, we present a new selection technique of high redshift quasars using a sequence of medium-band filters: nine filters with central wavelengths from 625 to 1025 nm and bandwidths of 50 nm. Photometry with these medium-bands traces the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a source, similar to spectroscopy with resolution R ~ 15. By conducting medium-band observations of high redshift quasars at 4.7 ≤ z ≤ 6.0 and brown dwarfs (the main contaminants in high redshift quasar selection) using the SED camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse (SQUEAN) on the 2.1-m telescope at the McDonald Observatory, we show that these medium-band filters are superior to multi-color broad-band color section in separating high redshift quasars from brown dwarfs. In addition, we show that redshifts of high redshift quasars can be determined to an accuracy of Δz/(1 + z) = 0.002 - 0.026. The selection technique can be extended to z ~ 7, suggesting that the medium-band observation can be powerful in identifying quasars even at the re-ionization epoch.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.40.2-40.2
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• 2014

The connection between the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and star formation activity is one of the most important issues in understanding the coevolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and galaxies. In our recent study, by using SDSS quasar spectra we found that the emission-line flux rations involving a nitrogen line, i.e., $NV{\lambda}1240$, correlate with the Eddington ratio. This correlation suggests that the mass accretion into SMBH is associated with a post-starburst phase, when AGB stars enrich the interstellar medium with the nitrogen. Moreover, we focused on nitrogen-loud quasars, which have prominent emission lines of the nitrogen, to investigate whether this argument is correct or not. We will present our recent results described above and discuss the relation between the star formation and feeding to SMBHs.