• 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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2014

Radial color gradient of early type galaxies (ETGs) is a key tool for studying the evolution of these galaxies. In this work, we investigated whether ETGs having negative or positive color gradients show any distinguishable characteristics in the galaxy properties. We selected sample of 211 ETGs at 0.01 < z < 0.5 in the Spitzer FLS field, then we constructed u-R color gradients. We obtained the stellar mass, specific star formation rate and fluxes of emission lines of each ETG from MPA-JHU DR7 catalog. Spitzer IRAC and MIPS 24 micron data were used to detect dust emission from the ETGs. Preliminary result shows that less massive galaxies are likely to have positive color gradients, which is probably due to the ongoing star formation in the galaxy core. Almost all AGNs have negative color gradients. This probably is because AGNs are located in relatively massive galaxies with little ongoing star formation. There exists a marginal difference in the percentage of galaxies with PAH emission between ETGs having positive color gradient and negative color gradient. This also supports that ETGs with positive color gradient are galaxies having enhanced star formation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.42.2-42.2
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• 2014

We investigate the history of formation of ~400 galaxies in four Abell clusters at 0.04

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.38.1-38.1
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• 2017

We report the results of three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations of star cluster formation in turbulent molecular clouds, with primary attention to how stellar radiation feedback controls the lifetime and net star formation efficiency (SFE) of their natal clouds. We examine the combined effects of photoionization and radiation pressure for a wide range of cloud masses (10^4 - 10^6 Msun) and radii (2 - 80 pc). In all simulations, stars form in densest regions of filaments until feedback becomes strong enough to clear the remaining gas out of the system. We find that the SFE is primarily a function of the initial cloud surface density, Sigma, (SFE increasing from ~7% to ~50% as Sigma increases from ~30 Msun/pc^2 to ~10^3 Msun/pc^2), with weak dependence on the initial cloud mass. Control runs with the same initial conditions but without either radiation pressure or photoionization show that photoionization is the dominant feedback mechanism for clouds typical in normal disk galaxies, while they are equally important for more dense, compact clouds. For low-Sigma clouds, more than 80% of the initial cloud mass is lost by photoevaporation flows off the surface of dense clumps. The cloud becomes unbound within ~0.5-2.5 initial free-fall times after the first star-formation event, implying that cloud dispersal is rapid once massive star formation takes place. We briefly discuss implications and limitations of our work in relation to observations.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.60.2-60.2
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• 2011

Galactic bars are supposed to be a channel of gas inflow to the galactic center and thus possibly help nuclear star-formation and AGN activities. However, previous studies based on small local samples did not agree with this expectation. We find it necessary to examine the expectation using a large sample and so investigate the effects of bar structures on galactic nuclear activities, based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7. We used 6,348 late-type galaxies brighter than Mr = -19.0 in the redshift range $0.01{\leq}z{\leq}0.05$. Late-type galaxies are visually classified into barred or unbarred galaxies using SDSS color composite images. We compare the fractions of galaxies showing star-formation and AGN activities among barred and unbarred galaxies as a function of optical color, stellar mass, and black-hole mass. We have found that bar enhances nuclear star-formation activity on galaxies having low stellar mass, and low black-hole mass. This effect is stronger in redder galaxies. In the case of AGN, bar effects are higher in intermediate-mass galaxies. Bars also have an effect on the strength(!) of the star-formation and AGN activity in our sample as well. Thus, it seems that nuclear activities are powered by gas inflow from galactic bar structures perhaps not always but under certain conditions.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.39.3-39.3
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• 2019

Ram pressure stripping due to the intracluster medium (ICM) is an important environmental process, which causes star formation quenching by effectively removing cold interstellar gas from galaxies in dense environments. The evidence of diffuse atomic gas stripping has been reported in several HI imaging studies. However, it is still under debate whether molecular gas (i.e., a more direct ingredient for star formation) can be also affected and/or stripped by ram pressure. The goal of this thesis is to understand the impact of ram pressure on the molecular gas content of cluster galaxies and hence star formation activity. To achieve this, we conducted a series of detailed studies on the molecular gas properties of three Virgo spiral galaxies with clear signs of active HI gas stripping (NGC 4330, NGC 4402, and NGC 4522) based on high-resolution CO data obtained from the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). As a result, we find the evidence that the molecular gas disk also gets affected by ram pressure in similar ways as HI even well inside of the stellar disk. In addition, we detected extraplanar 13CO clumps in one of the sample, which is the first case ever reported in ram pressure stripped galaxies. By analyzing multi-wavelength data (e.g., Hα, UV, HI, and CO), we discuss detailed processes of how ram pressure affects star formation activities and hence evolution of cluster galaxies. We also discuss the origin of extraplanar 13CO, and how ram pressure can potentially contribute to the chemical evolution of the ICM.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.243-248
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• 2012

Nearby spiral galaxies M101 and M81 are considered to have undergone a galaxy-galaxy interaction. M101 has experienced HI gas infall due to the interaction. With AKARI far-infrared (IR) photometric observations, we found regions with enhanced star forming activity, which are spatially close to regions affected by the interaction. In addition, the relation between the star formation rate (SFR) and the gas content for such regions shows a significant difference from typical spiral arm regions. We discuss possible explanations for star formation processes on a kiloparsec scale and the association with interaction-triggered star formation. We also observed the compact group of galaxies Stephan's Quintet (SQ) with the AKARI Far-infrared Surveyor (FIS). The SQ shows diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) due to multiple collisions between the member galaxies and the IGM. The intruder galaxy NGC 7318b is currently colliding with the IGM and causes a large-scale shock. The 160 micron image clearly shows the structure along the shock ridge as seen in warm molecular hydrogen line emission and X-ray emission. The far-IR emission from the shocked region comes from the luminous [CII]$158{\mu}m$ line and cold dust (~ 20 K) that coexist with molecular hydrogen gas. Survival of dust grains is indispensable to form molecular hydrogen gas within the collision age (~ 5 Myr). At the stage of the dusty IGM environment, [CII] and $H_2$ lines rather than X-ray emission are powerful cooling channels to release the collision energy.

• 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.45 no.1
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• pp.58.4-59
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• 2020

We present preliminary results of 1.1 and 1.3 mm dust continuum and 12CO (J=2-1) line data obtained with the Submillimeter Array toward six cores harboring Class 0/I objects in the λ Orionis cloud. They are located in bright rimmed clouds, which are exposed to the far-ultraviolet radiation field by the O-type star λ Ori. Compact dust continuum emission is observed from all six cores. Among the six cores, only one core G196.92-10.37 shows a signature of binarity with separation of 4000 AU. The numbers of singles and binaries in our sample are five and one, respectively and the derived multiplicity frequency (MF) is 0.17. This value is lower than those found in the binary surveys toward Class 0/I objects, which may be a hint for negative feedback by the nearby massive star, lambda Ori. The derived excitation temperature (Tex) using 12CO emission shows a lower median value (20 K) than those of triggered star-forming regions (30 K). The lower MF and Tex support our previous study that star formation was not triggered in the λ Orionis cloud. We aim to further investigate whether the Class 0/I YSOs in the λ Orionis cloud have less circumstellar materials and smaller accretion rates than in other filamentary clouds (e.g., Orion A & B), which might be attributed to negative feedback from the massive star in limiting accretion of protostars.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.151-160
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• 2011

We present a study searching for globular cluster systems (GCSs) of two face-on low surface bright- ness galaxies (LSBGs), UGC 5981 and UGC 6614. Based on HSTWFPC2 images of F555Wand F814W filters, we detect 12 and 18 GC candidates for UGC 5981 and UGC 6614, respectively. Although these two LSBGs have very different bulge properties, they have very similar specific frequencies ($S_N$) of 0.1. However, $S_N$ ~ 0.1 is quite small even for their late morphological types, albeit within errors. This suggests that LSBGs have had star formation histories lacking dominant initial starburst events while accumulating their stellar masses through sporadic star formation activities.