• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.51-59
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• 2017

The presence of blue stragglers pose challenges to standard stellar evolution theory, in the sense that explaining their presence demands a complex interplay between stellar evolution and cluster dynamics. In the meantime, mass transfer in binary systems and stellar collisions are widely studied as a blue straggler formation channel. We explore properties of the Galactic open clusters where blue stragglers are found, in attempting to estimate the relative importance of these two favored processes, by comparing them with those resulting from open clusters in which blue stragglers are absent as of now. Unlike previous studies which require a sophisticated process in understanding the implication of the results, this approach is straightforward and has resulted in a supplementary supporting evidence for the current view on the blue straggler formation mechanism. Our main findings are as follows: (1) Open clusters in which blue stragglers are present have a broader distribution with respect to the Z-axis pointing towards the North Galactic Pole than those in which blue stragglers are absent. The probability that two distributions with respect to the Z-axis are drawn from the same distribution is 0.2%. (2) Average values of $log_10(t)$ of the clusters with blue stragglers and those without blue stragglers are $8.58{\pm}0.232$ and $7.52{\pm}0.285$, respectively. (3) The clusters with blue stragglers tend to be relatively redder than the others, and are distributed broader in colors. (4) The clusters with blue stragglers are likely brighter than those without blue stragglers. (5) Finally, blue stragglers seem to form in condensed clusters rather than simply dense clusters. Hence, we conclude that mass transfer in binaries seems to be a relatively important physical mechanism of the generation of blue stragglers in open clusters, provided they are sufficiently old.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.133-140
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• 2013

The empirical mass discrepancy-acceleration (MDA) relation of disk galaxies provides a key test for models of galactic dynamics. In terms of modified laws of gravity and/or inertia, the MDA relation quantifies the transition from Newtonian to modified dynamics at low centripetal accelerations $a_c{\lesssim}10^{-10}ms^{-2}$. As yet, neither dynamical models based on dark matter nor proposed modifications of the laws of gravity/inertia have predicted the functional form of the MDA relation. In this work, I revisit the MDA data and compare them to four different theoretical scaling laws. Three of these scaling laws are entirely empirical; the fourth one - the "simple ${\mu}$" function of Modified Newtonian Dynamics - derives from a toy model of gravity based on massive gravitons (the "graviton picture"). All theoretical MDA relations comprise one free parameter of the dimension of an acceleration, Milgrom's constant aM. I find that the "simple ${\mu}$" function provides a good fit to the data free of notable systematic residuals and provides the best fit among the four scaling laws tested. The best-fit value of Milgrom's constant is $a_M=(1.06{\pm}0.05){\times}10^{-10}ms^{-2}$. Given the successful prediction of the functional form of the MDA relation, plus an overall agreement with the observed kinematics of stellar systems spanning eight orders of magnitude in size and 14 orders of magnitude in mass, I conclude that the "graviton picture" is sufficient (albeit probably not a necessary nor unique approach) to describe galactic dynamics on all scales well beyond the scale of the solar system. This suggests that, at least on galactic scales, gravity behaves as if it was mediated by massive particles.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.105-113
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• 2010

We study the dynamical evolution of the M87 globular cluster (GC) system using the most advanced and realistic Fokker-Planck (FP) model.By comparing our FP models with both mass function (MF) and radial distribution (RD) of the observed GC system, we find the best-fit initial (at M87's age of 2-3 Gyr) MF and RD for three GC groups: all GCs, blue GCs, and red GCs. We estimate the initial total mass in GCs to be $1.8^{+0.3}_{-0.2}{\times}10^{10}M_{\bigodot}$, which is about 100 times larger than that of the Milky Way GC system. We also find that the fraction of the total mass currently in GCs is 34\%. When blue and red GCs are fitted separately, blue GCs initially have a larger total mass and a shallower radial distribution than red GCs. If one assumes that most of the significant major merger events of M87 have ended by the age of 2-3 Gyr, our finding that blue (metal-poor) GCs initially had a shallower radial distribution supports the major merger scenario for the origin of metallicity bimodality.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.61-76
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• 1994

We investigate the dynamical evolution of globular clusters under the diffusion, the Galactic tide, and the presence of halo black holes. We compare the results with our previous work which considers the diffusion processes and the Galactic tide. We find the followings: (1) The black holes contribute the expansion of the outer part of the cluster. (2) There is no evidence for dependence on the orbital phase of the cluster as in our previous work. (3) The models of linear and Gaussian velocity distribution for the halo black holes do not show any significant differences in all cases. (4) The perturbation of black holes reduces the number of stars in lower energy regions. (5) There is a significant number of stars with retrograde orbits beyond the cutoff radius especially in the case of diffusion and the perturbation of black holes.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.75-85
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• 2002

We present N-body simulations of globular clusters including gravitational field of the Galaxy, in order to study effects of tidal field systematically on the shape of outer parts of globular clusters using NBODY6. The Galaxy is assumed to be composed of central bulge and outer halo. We mvestigate the cluster of multi-mass models with a power-law initial mass function (IMF) starting with different initial masses, initial number of particles, different slopes of the IMF and different orbits of the cluster. We have examined the general evolution of the clusters, the shape of outer parts of the clusters, density profiles and the direction of tidal tails. The density profiles appear to become somewhat shallower just outside the tidal boundary consistent with some observed data. The position angle of the tidal tall depends on the location in the Galaxy as well as the direction of the motion of. clusters. We found that the clusters become more elongated at the apogalacticon than at the pengalacticon. The tidal tails may be used to trace the orbital paths of globular clusters.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.55.2-55.2
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• 2016

In this talk, I will present a theoretical and numerical framework for self-regulation of the star formation rates (SFRs) in disk galaxies. The theory assumes (1) force balance between pressure support and the weight of the interstellar medum (ISM), (2) thermal balance between radiative cooling in the ISM and heating via FUV radiation from massive young stars, and (3) turbulent energy balance between dissipation in the ISM and driving by momentum injection of SNe. Numerical simulations show vigorous dynamics in the ISM at all times, but with proper temporal and spatial averages, all the expected balances hold. This leads to a scaling relation between mean SFRs and galactic gas and stellar properties, arising from the fundamental relationship between SFR surface density and the total midplane pressure.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2016

Blue Straggler Stars(BSS) affect their host star cluster in various parameters like color, dynamics, etc. For this reason, it is important to know how to relate BSS frequency and evolution of their host stellar system. To statistical study about global properties of open clusters as the environments of BSS formation, we use three catalogues - (1) two galactic open clusters catalogues including BSS candidate, (2) Milky Way Star Cluster (MWSC) survey data. Then, we compare with the data of two BSS catalogues for test of the result of Marchi et al. 2006. We also investigate the radial mass distribution in open cluster, because it is possible that changing the gradient of radial mass distribution cause increasing the BSS frequency. When we group the open cluster into having BSS or not and other criteria, the groups show slight discrepancies, but we show some important results.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.143-144
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• 1996

Two-component models (normal star and degenerate star components) are the simplest realization of clusters with a mass spectrum because the high mass stars quickly evolve off leaving degenerate stars behind, while low mass stars survive for a long time as main-sequence stars. In the present study we examine the post-collapse evolution of globular clusters using two-component Fokker-Planck models that include three-body binary heating. We confirm that a simple parameter ${\epsilon}{\equiv} (E_{tot}/t_{rh})/(E_c/t_{rc})$ well describes the occurrence of gravothermal oscillations of two-component clusters. Also, we find that the degree of instability depends on the steepness of the mass function such that clusters with a steeper mass function are less exposed to instability.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.201-204
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• 1996

Magnetic fields are thought to playa role in a wide variety of important astrophysical processes, from angular momentum transport and jet formation in accretion disks to corona formation in stars. Unfortunately, the dynamics of magnetic fields in astrophysical plasmas are extremely complicated, and the success of current theoretical models and computer simulations seems to be inversely correlated with the amount of observational detail available to us. Here I will discuss some of the more striking conflicts between numerical simulations and observations, and present an explanation for them based on an important dynamical process which is not adequately modeled in current numerical simulations. These processes will lead to the formation of flux tubes in stars and accretion disks, in accordance with observations. I will discuss some of the implications of flux tube formation for stellar and accretion disk dynamos.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.17-26
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• 2009

We estimate the enclosed mass profile in the central 10 pc of the Milky Way by analyzing the infrared photometry and the velocity observations of dynamically relaxed stellar population in the Galactic center. HST/NICMOS and Gemini Adaptive Optics images in the archive are used to obtain the number density profile, and proper motion and radial velocity data were compiled from the literature to find the velocity dispersion profile assuming a spherical symmetry and velocity isotropy. From these data, we calculate the the enclosed mass and density profiles in the central 10 pc of the Galaxy using the Jeans equation. Our improved estimates can better describe the exact evolution of the molecular clouds and star clusters falling down to the Galactic center, and constrain the star formation history of the inner part of the Galaxy.