• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.321-324
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• 2012

Using extensive mid-IR datasets from AKARI, i.e. 9-band photometry covering the wavelength range from $2{\mu}m$ to $24{\mu}m$ and the unbiased spectroscopic survey for sources with $S_{\nu}$($9{\mu}m$)>0.3 mJy, we study starburst galaxies specifically at the redshift of z ~ 0.5, whose mid-IR spectra are clearly dominated by the PAH emission features. PAH-selected galaxies, selected with extremely red mid-IR colour due to PAHs, have high rest-frame PAH-to-stellar luminosity ratios, comparable to those in the most active regions in nearby starburst galaxies. Thus, they seem to have active starburst regions spreading over the whole body. Furthermore, some of PAH-selected galaxies are found to have peculiar rest-frame 11-to-$8{\mu}m$ flux ratios, which is systematically smaller than nearby starburst/AGN spectral templates. This may indicate a systematic difference in the physical condition of ISM between nearby and distant starburst galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.78.2-78.2
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• 2017

Post-starburst (E+A) galaxies are thought to be in the green valley transition phase between star-forming blue galaxies and quiescent red galaxies. They are identified by their unusual spectra characterized by strong Balmer absorption lines and weak emission lines, indicating a period of starburst followed by abrupt quenching. However, the underlying mechanism that drives the formation of E+A galaxies still remains contradictory or inconclusive. Thus, in order to differentiate between the different formation scenarios of E+A galaxies, we perform a statistical analysis of the environments of E+A galaxies. We spectroscopically identify a large sample of post-starburst galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7) using a selection criteria based on $H{\delta}$ equivalent width. We report our findings and discuss their implications in the context of post-starburst galaxy formation.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.499-502
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• 2015

Starburst galaxies have strong star formation activity and generate large scale outflows which eject a huge amount of gas mass. This process affects galaxy activity, and therefore, the detailed study of nearby starburst galaxies could provide valuable information for the study of distant ones. So far there have been only a few studies of galactic-scale molecular outflows due to the sensitivity limitation of telescopes. Our study provides two nearby examples, NGC 2146 and NGC 3628. We used Nobeyama Millimeter Array (NMA) CO(1-0) data, Chandra soft X-ray data, and NMA 3 mm data to study the kinematics of molecular outflows, their interaction with ionized outflows, and the star forming activity in the starburst region. We found that the gas ejected through molecular outflows is much more significant than that used to form stars.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.159-160
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• 1996

Recent high resolution CO observations of normal and starburst galaxies at Owens Valley Millimeter Array are summarized. While normal disk galaxies generally show exponential distribution which follows the optical blue light, starburst galaxies are often characterized by a compact ($\~$1 kpc) nuclear complex whose surface gas mass density is strongly correlated with the observed large infrared luminosity and thus the ongoing massive star formation.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.145-148
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• 2003

P-Cygni type Ly$\alpha$ from starburst galaxies, either nearby galaxies or Lyman Break galaxies, are believed to be formed by galactic outflows such as galactic supershells or galactic superwinds. We develope a Monte Carlo code to calculate the Ly$\alpha$ line transfer in a galactic supershell which is expanding and formed of uniform and dusty neutral hydrogen gas. The escape of Ly$\alpha$ photons from the system is achieved by a number of back-scatterings. A series of emission peaks are formed by back-scatterings. When we observe P-Cygni type Ly$\alpha$ emissions of starforming galaxies, we can usually see merely singly-peaked emission. Hence the secondary and the tertiary emission humps should be destroyed. In order to do this, dust should be spatially more extended into the inner cavity than neutral supershell. We find that the kinematic information of the expanding supershell is conserved even in dusty media. We discuss the astrophysical applications of our results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.31.1-31.1
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• 2018

While astronomers are working hard to detect the earliest galaxies and to follow their evolution to redshift z~0, they remain baffled by the present-day dichotomy between disky, star forming (aka late-type) galaxies and quiescent, spheroidal (aka early-type) galaxies. The key is to find galaxies in transition from one class to the other, whose spectra indicate intense recent star formation that has now ended. We have identified thousands of such "post-starburst galaxies" and discovered that they are often the products of late-type galaxy-galaxy mergers. Their current kinematics, stellar populations, and morphologies are consistent with late- to early-type galaxy evolution. I will discuss recent work that suggests new connections between this violent history and the central supermassive black hole. In particular, the molecular gas reservoir of a post-starburst galaxy declines rapidly after the starburst ends and in a manner consistent with feedback from an active nucleus. Furthermore, a star is ~300x more likely to be tidally disrupted by the nucleus of a post-starburst galaxy than in other galaxies. Like the well-known black hole-bulge mass correlation, these surprising links between the properties of a galaxy on kpc scales and its supermassive black hole on pc scales require explanation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.55.1-55.1
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• 2011

Luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs; $L_{IR}$ > ${10^{11}}_{Lsun}$) are the most powerful objects in the local Universe. Previous work suggested that dust re-processing of starburst and/or active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity, triggered by galaxy interactions, is responsible for their enormous infrared emission. To understand the nature of LIRGs, it is essential to determine their spectral types. Optical spectral types of 115 ultraluminous infrared galaxies in the southern sky are presented using CTIO observations. The AGN fraction is on average 50% and increases with infrared luminosity. Near-infrared spectral types of 36 LIRGs are also presented based on AKARI observations. In the sample, 12 optically elusive buried AGNs are found. To investigate the evolutionary sequence of LIRGs, star formation histories of ~6000 LIRGs in the SDSS and IRAS/AKARI matched sample are derived by comparing observed optical spectra and stellar population models. AGN-dominated LIRGs are currently massive relative to starburst-dominated LIRGs, which originates from an enhancement of star formation at intermediate-ages. For ~1100 early-type LIRGs, optical and NIR fundamental planes (FPs) are constructed. The FP of LIRGs is significantly different from that of normal early-type galaxies, but the difference is minimized in low luminous and AGN-like LIRGs. These findings support that the importance of AGN is growing as infrared luminosity increases and that LIRGs follow at least in the high mass regime the standard evolutionary scenario: starburst LIRGs evolve into AGN LIRGs and finally into normal early-type galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.60.1-60.1
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• 2011

We present preliminary results of a statistical study on star formation history of infrared luminous galaxies selected from a IRAS-SDSS matched sample. We derive their star formation histories by comparing observed optical spectra and stellar population synthetic model templates. We find that young population fraction (<500 Myr) increases with infrared luminosity, while AGN-host (based on optical line ratios) galaxies show an enhancement of star formation at intermediate age (around 1 Gyr) compared with starburst galaxies. These results support that infrared luminosity is dominated by starburst activity and that there is an evolutionary connection from starburst to AGN.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.175-177
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• 2017

In order to reveal physical conditions of molecular gas in active galaxies (active galaxies mean both starbursts and AGNs in this paper), we carried out systematic observations (R = 19 ~ 120) of CO fundamental band at $4.7{\mu}m$ in absorption with AKARI. We also made follow-up CO absorption observations at higher spectral resolution (R = 5000 ~ 1000) with Subaru. Recently, Herschel made extensive observations of highly-excited CO lines in emission in the far-infrared. The two data sets (absorption and emission) sometimes provide us with apparently inconsistent results. One case is starburst galaxies: Subaru observations showed low temperature of molecular gas toward the starburst NGC 253, while Herschel detected highly excited CO lines in the starburst. This suggests that warm molecular clouds are more deeply embedded than newly formed star clusters. The other case is obscured AGNs; Herschel detected highly excited CO lines in emission in nearby AGNs, while AKARI and Subaru observations showed CO absorption only in some of the obscured AGNs. This could reflect the difference of nature of molecular tori in these AGNs. We propose the combination of the absorption and emission observations as an effective tool to reveal geometry of warm molecular clouds in active galaxies.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.271-274
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• 2012

We present the result of systematic AKARI IRC infrared $2.5-5{\mu}m$ spectroscopy of >100 nearby luminous infrared galaxies, to investigate the energetic roles of starbursts and optically-elusive buried AGNs. Based on (1) the equivalent widths of the $3.3{\mu}m$ PAH emission features, (2) the optical depths of absorption features, and (3) continuum slopes, we can disentangle emission from starbursts and AGNs. We find that the energetic importance of buried AGNs increases with increasing galaxy infrared luminosities, suggesting that the AGN-starburst connections (and thereby possible AGN feedback to host galaxies) are luminosity dependent.