• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.22
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• pp.15.1-15.1
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• 1997

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.521-523
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• 2015

The Milky Way did not form in isolation, but is the product of a complex evolution of generations of mergers, collapses, star formation, supernovae and collisional heating, radiative and collisional cooling, and ejected nucleosynthesis. Moreover, all of this occurs in the context of the cosmic expansion, the formation of cosmic filaments, dark-matter haloes, spiral density waves, and emerging dark energy. This paper summarizes a review of recent attempts to reconstruct this complex evolution. We compare simulated properties with various observed properties of the Local Group. Among the generic features of simulated systems is the tendency for galactic halos to form within the dark matter filaments that define a supergalactic plane. Gravitational interaction along this structure leads to a streaming flow toward the two dominant galaxies in the cluster. We analyze this alignment and streaming flow and compare with the observed properties of Local-Group galaxies. Our comparison with Local Group properties suggests that some dwarf galaxies in the Local Group are part of a local streaming flow. These simulations also suggest that a significant fraction of the Galactic halo formed at large distances and arrived later along these streaming flows.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.71-88
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• 2021

We use N-body/hydrodynamic simulations to study the evolution of the spin of a Milky Way-like galaxy through interactions. We perform a controlled experiment of co-planar galaxy-galaxy encounters and study the evolution of disk spins of interacting galaxies. Specifically, we consider cases where the late-type target galaxy encounters an equally massive companion galaxy, which has either a late or an early-type morphology, with a closest approach distance of about 50 kpc, in prograde or retrograde sense. By examining the time change of the circular velocity of the disk material of the target galaxy from each case, we find that the target galaxy tends to lose the spin through prograde collisions but hardly through retrograde collisions, regardless of the companion galaxy type. The decrease of the spin results mainly from the deflection of the orbit of the disk material by tidal disruption. Although there is some disk material which gains the circular velocity through hydrodynamic as well as gravitational interactions or by transferring material from the companion galaxy, it turns out that the amount of the material is generally insufficient to increase the overall galactic spin under the conditions we set. We find that the spin angular momentum of the target galaxy disk decreases by 15-20% after a prograde collision. We conclude that the accumulated effects of galaxy-galaxy interactions will play an important role in determining the total angular momentum of late-type galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.35.3-35.3
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• 2015

The central molecular zone (CMZ) is a region of rich molecular gas located in the inner few hundred parsecs in barred spiral galaxies. We study the size and morphology evolution of the CMZ of Milky Way-like galaxies both in isolation and in interaction by using N-body/hydrodynamic simulations. Specifically, we examine the gas flows and star formation activities in the central region of the galaxies. We focus in particular on the effects of galaxy interactions, including flybys and minor mergers, on the evolution of the CMZ.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.28.1-28.1
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• 2010

Recent surveys have shown that many early-type galaxies have signatures of ongoing or recent star formation (RSF). These RSF galaxies show blue integrated UV-optical colours that set them aside in the NUV integrated colour-magnitude relation. Among them, NGC 4150 has been observed using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope to inspect the galaxy with higher spatial resolution. In the WFC3 data, the galaxy reveals ubiquitous near-UV emission and remarkable dusty substructure. Our analysis shows this galaxy to lie in the near-UV green valley, and its pixel-by-pixel photometry exhibits a narrow range of UV-optical colours that are similar to those of nearby E+A (post-starburst) galaxies, and lie between those of M83 (an actively star-forming spiral) and the local quiescent early-type galaxy population. This work reaffirms our hypothesis that minor mergers play a significant role in the evolution of early-type galaxies at late epochs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.62.2-62.2
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• 2011

It is well known that the cluster environment can change the atomic gas properties of galaxies through tidal interactions and/or by the hot cluster medium. Meanwhile, the molecular gas is expected to be less vulnerable to its surroundings due to its higher density, and no obvious influence of the environment on the molecular gas properties had been found among cluster spirals until recently. However, in a recent study by Fumagalli et al. (2009) of a sub-sample of Virgo spirals, it has been suggested that HI deficient galaxies can be also CO deficient. In order to further investigate if the HI deficiency indeed can result in the deficiency in molecular gas content, we compare the global CO and HI gas properties of Virgo spirals with those of galaxies in the Ursa Major cluster and the Pisces cluster, much lower density environments than Virgo. We discuss possible consequences of molecular gas deficiency in star formation activity of spiral galaxies in high density environment.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.74.1-74.1
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• 2019

We present the distance measurements of two spiral galaxies NGC 4517, NGC 4592, and neighboring dwarf galaxies found in Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) wide field survey data. Distances to NGC 4517 and NGC 4592 are measured by the Tip of the Red Giant Branch method from archival Hubble Space Telescope data; 9.00^+0.094_-0.260 Mpc for NGC 4517 and 8.90^+0.256_-0.060 Mpc for NGC 4592. The spatial distance between NGC 4517 and NGC 4592 is 300 kpc, which is close enough for them to be considered as a group (NGC 4517 group). Using resolved stellar photometry and Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) method with HSC-SSP data, we estimate the distances to three other dwarf galaxies and confirm that they are members of the group. Velocities of three of the galaxies in the NGC 4517 group show that this group is one of the galaxy groups in the near side of the Virgo Cluster infall region.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.62.2-62.2
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• 2016

We present a newly developed algorithm based on a Bayesian method for 2D tilted-ring analysis of disk galaxies which operates on velocity fields. Compared to the conventional ones based on a chi-squared minimisation procedure, this new Bayesian-based algorithm less suffers from local minima of the model parameters even with high multi-modality of their posterior distributions. Moreover, the Bayesian analysis implemented via Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling only requires broad ranges of posterior distributions of the parameters, which makes the fitting procedure fully automated. This feature is essential for performing kinematic analysis of an unprecedented number of resolved galaxies from the upcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA) pathfinders' galaxy surveys. A standalone code, the so-called '2D Bayesian Automated Tilted-ring fitter' (2DBAT) that implements the Bayesian fits of 2D tilted-ring models is developed for deriving rotation curves of galaxies that are at least marginally resolved (> 3 beams across the semi-major axis) and moderately inclined (20 < i < 70 degree). The main layout of 2DBAT and its performance test are discussed using sample galaxies from Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations as well as artificial data cubes built based on representative rotation curves of intermediate-mass and massive spiral galaxies.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.9-16
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• 2007

We examine the morphology and luminosity distribution of a strongly warped spiral galaxy PGC 20348 by conducting a detailed BVI CCD surface photometry using BOAO 1.8m telescope. The radial surface brightness shows a break at warp radius $(r_{\omega})$ with a shallow gradient in the inner disk and a steeper gradient in the outer disk. The luminosity of east side of the disk is ${\sim}0.5$ mag fainter than the west side at r > $r_{\omega}$. The reason for the asymmetric luminosity distribution is thought to be the asymmetric flarings that result in the formation of a large diffuse region at the edge of the east disk and a smaller diffuse region at the west disk. The vertical luminosity profiles show a thick disk component whose scale heights increase with increasing galactocentric distances. The warp of PGC 20348 seems to be made by the tidal interactions with the two massive companion galaxies since the flarings and radial increase of disk scale heights are thought to be general properties of tidally perturbed disks. According to the colors of the two clumps inside the diffuse region at the edge of the east disk, they seem to be sites of active star formation triggered by tidal forces from the companion galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.77.2-77.2
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• 2015

Galaxies are known to evolve passively in the cluster environment. Indeed, much evidence for HI stripping has been found in cluster galaxies to date, which is likely to be connected to their low star formation rate. What is still puzzling however, is that the molecular gas, which is believed to be more directly related to star formation, shows no significant difference in its fraction between the cluster population and the field galaxies. Therefore, HI stripping alone does not seem to be enough to fully understand how galaxies become passive in galaxy clusters. Intriguingly, our recent high resolution CO study of a subsample of Virgo spirals which are undergoing strong ICM pressure has revealed a highly disturbed molecular gas morphology and kinematics. The morphological and kinematical peculiarities in their CO data have many properties in common with those of HI gas in the sample, indicating that strong ICM pressure in fact can have impacts on dense gas deep inside of a galaxy. This implies that it is the molecular gas conditions rather than the molecular gas stripping which is more responsible for quenching of star formation in cluster galaxies. In this study, using multi transitions of 12CO and 13CO, we investigate the density and temperature distributions of CO gas of a Virgo spiral galaxy, NGC 4402 to probe the physical and chemical properties of molecular gas and their relations to star formation activities.