• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.34.1-34.1
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• 2019

To study the formation and evolution of stellar bars and gaseous nuclear rings in barred galaxies in realistic environments, we run fully self-consistent three-dimensional simulations of isolated disk galaxies. We consider two groups of models with cold or warm disks that differ in the radial velocity dispersion. We also vary the gas fraction of the disks. We found that a bar forms earlier and more strongly as the gas fraction increases in the cold disks, while the gas delays the bar formation in the warm disks. The bar formation enhances a central mass concentration which in turn weakens the bar strength temporarily, after which the bar regrows to become stronger in a model with a smaller gas fraction in both cold and warm disks. Although all bars rotate fast in the beginning, they rapidly turn to slow rotators. Gas infalling to the central region forms a dense star-forming nuclear ring. The ring size is very small when it first forms and grows over time. The ring star formation is episodic and bursty due to star formation feedback, and has a good correlation with the mass inflow rate to the ring. Some expanding shells produced by star formation feedback are sheared out in the bar regions and collide with dust lanes to appear as filamentary interbar spurs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.69.3-70
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• 2021

We present the chemical properties of star-forming dwarf galaxies (SFDGs) in five filamentary structures (Leo II A, Leo II B, Leo Minor, Canes Venatici, and Virgo III) around the Virgo cluster using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical spectroscopic data and Galaxy Evolution Explorer ultraviolet photometric data. We investigate the relationship between stellar mass, gas-phase metallicity, and specific star formation rate (sSFR) of SFDGs in the Virgo filaments in comparison to those in the Virgo cluster and field. We find that, at a given stellar mass, SFDGs in the Virgo filaments show lower metallicity and higher sSFR than those in the Virgo cluster on average. We observe that SFDGs in the Virgo III filament show enhanced metallicities and suppressed star formation activities comparable to those in the Virgo cluster, whereas SFDGs in the other four filaments exhibit similar properties to the field counterparts. Moreover, about half of the galaxies in the Virgo III filament are found to be morphologically transitional dwarf galaxies that are supposed to be on the way to transforming into quiescent dwarf early-type galaxies. Based on the analysis of the galaxy perturbation parameter, we propose that the local environment represented by the galaxy interactions might be responsible for the contrasting features in "chemical pre-processing" found in the Virgo filaments.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.31.2-31.2
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• 2020

Mass segregation, a tendency of more massive galaxies being distributed closer to the cluster center, is naturally expected from dynamical friction, but its presence is still controversial. Using deep optical observations of 14 Abell clusters (KYDISC) and a set of hydrodynamic simulations (YZiCS), we find in some cases a hint of mass segregation inside the virial radius. Segregation is visible more clearly when the massive galaxy fraction is used instead of mean stellar mass. The trend is more significant in the simulations than in the observations. To find out the mechanisms working on mass segregation, we look into the evolution of individual clusters simulated. We find that the degree of mass segregation is different for different clusters: the trend is visible only for low-mass clusters. We compare the masses of galaxies and their dark haloes at the time of infall and at the present epoch to quantify the amount of tidal stripping. We then conclude that satellites that get accreted at earlier epochs, or galaxies in more massive clusters go through more tidal stripping. These effects in combination result in a correlation between the host halo mass and the degree of stellar mass segregation. This is a work submitted to The Astrophysical Journal (under review).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.143.1-143.1
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• 2011

Deep Ca,b,y images obtained from the CTIO 4m Blaco telescope are used to investigate the multiple stellar populations of red giant branch (RGB) and sub-giant branch (SGB) in Galactic globular clusters NGC 6656 and NGC 6723. For NGC 6656, confirming the result of Lee et al. (2009), we find two discrete populations of the RGB stars of which mean color separation is about 0.2 mag in hk[=(Ca-b)-(b-y)] index. Furthermore, we also find the bimodel distribution of the SGB stars in (hk, y) color-magnitude diagram. A new finding is that the (hk, y) color-magnitude diagram of NGC 6723 shows two distinct RGB stars with different calcium abundances of which mean color separation is about 0.12 mag in hk index. This multiple stellar feature has not been observed in previous observation, suggesting that NGC 6723 may also be a possible relic of dwarf galaxies that merged into the Milky Way in the past. Thus our result adds further constraints to the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation. Unfortunately, the split of SGB stars in NGC 6723 is not obvious. We will present some statistical results to compare properties of two populations in two clusters.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.62.1-62.1
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• 2021

Interstellar objects originate from other stellar systems. Thus, they contain information about the stellar systems that cannot be directly explored; the information includes the formation and evolution of the stellar systems and the possibility of life. The examples observed so far are 1l/Oumuamua in 2017 and 2l/Borisov in 2019. In this talk, we present the possibility of detecting interstellar objects using the Heliospheric Imagers designed for space weather research and forecasting by observing solar wind in interplanetary space between the Sun and Earth. Because interstellar objects are unpredictable events, the detection requires observations with wide coverage in spatial and long duration in temporal. The near-real time data availability is essential for follow-up observations to study their detailed properties and future rendezvous missions. Heliospheric Imagers provide day-side observations, inaccessible by traditional astronomical observations. This will dramatically increase the temporal and spatial coverage of observations and also the probability of detecting interstellar objects visiting our solar system, together with traditional astronomical observations. We demonstrate that this is the case. We have used data taken from Solar TErrestrial RElation Observatory (STEREO)/Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) HI-1. HI-1 is off-pointed from the Sun direction by 14 degrees with 20 degrees of the field of view. Using images observed from 2007 to 2019, we have found a total of 223 small objects other than stars, galaxies, or planets, indicative of the potential capability to detect interstellar objects. The same method can be applied to the currently operating missions such as the Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter and also future L5 and L4 missions. Since the data can be analyzed in near-real time due to the space weather purposes, more detailed properties can be analyzed by follow-up observations in ground and space, and also future rendezvous missions. We discuss future possible rendezvous missions at the end of this talk.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.71.1-71.1
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• 2013

Among quadruples or higher multiplicity stars, only a few binary systems have been discovered. They are important targets to understand the formation and evolution of multiple stellar systems because we can obtain accurate stellar parameters from photometric and spectroscopic studies. We present the observational results of this kind of rare object 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5, for which the doubly eclipsing feature had been detected previously from the SuperWASP photometric archive. Individual PSF photometry for two objects with a separation of about 1.9 arcsec was performed for the first time in this study. Our time-series photometric data show that the brighter object A is an Algol-type detached eclipsing binary with an orbital period of 1.3 days and the fainter B is a W UMa-type contact eclipsing binary with a period of 0.23 days. Using the high-resolution optical spectra, we obtained well-defined radial velocity variations of the system A. Furthermore, stationary spectral lines were detected and should have originated from the other stellar component, which was confirmed by the third object contribution from the light curve analysis. No spectral feature of the system B was detected, probably due to its faintness. We obtained the binary parameters and the absolute dimensions from each light curve synthesis. The primary and secondary components of the system A have a spectral type of K1 and K5 main sequences, respectively. Two components of system B have nearly the same type of K3 main sequence. Light variations at out of eclipses were appeared in both systems, interpreting as the effect of stellar spots on these late spectral type stars. We estimated the distances to the systems A and B individually. They may have similar distances of about 70 pc and seem to be gravitationally bound with a separation of about 130 AU. In conclusion, we suggest that 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5 is a quintuple stellar system with a hierarchical structure of a triple system A(ab)c and a binary system B(ab).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.79.2-79.2
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• 2015

The $M_{BH}-{\sigma}$ relation for galaxies is a stand-out illustration of the co-evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs); however, how this co-evolution occurs and whether this relation holds for SMBHs of the early universe is still a matter of debate. In order to study this at higher redshifts, quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are the best targets, due to their large sample size and effective $M_{BH}$ estimation. Nevertheless, it is difficult to examine properties of their host galaxies, simply due to the sheer brightness of the QSO itself. Here, we discuss a distinctive method in studying these QSO host galaxies, via gravitational lensing (GL). GL offers a unique approach in determining the mass of the lens object, in this case the host galaxy. QSOs from the SDSS quasar catalog were searched in the Hubble Space Telescope archives, and GL features around them were visually inspected. One such candidate is SDSS J1114-00; to increase its robustness as a GL system candidate, it was observed with the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera & Spectrograph (IMACS) on the Magellan Baade Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, to check whether the GL features have identical colors, meaning they are likely to originate from the same source. After confirmation of such GL systems, a sufficiently large sample will enable us to examine the $M_{BH}-{\sigma}$ relation at various redshifts, and in turn, investigate the co-evolution of SMBHs and their host galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.52.1-52.1
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• 2015

FIMS/SPEAR is a dual-channel far-ultraviolet imaging spectrograph on board the Korean microsatellite STSAT-1, which was launched on 2003 September 27. The primary mission goal of FIMS was to conduct a survey of diffuse far UV emissions in our Galaxy. For this purpose, FIMS completed a survey of about 84% of the sky during its operation of a year and a half. The present study aims to analyze this survey data made in the far UV wavelengths to understand the global evolution of our Galaxy. The far UV wavelength band is known to contain important cooling lines of hot gas: hence, the study will show how the hot gas in our Galaxy, produced by stellar winds and supernova explosion, evolves globally to cool down and become mixed with ambient cooler medium. One of the main findings from previous analyses of the FIMS data is that molecular hydrogen exists ubiquitously in our Galaxy. This discovery leads to another important scientific question: how is molecular hydrogen distributed in our Galaxy and how does it affect globally the evolution of our Galaxy as a cold component? Hence, the present study will cover both the hot and cold components of the ISM, which will also provide the opportunity to investigate the interactions between the two.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.62.1-62.1
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• 2014

Metallicity distribution of globular clusters (GCs) provides an important clue for star formation history of their host galaxy. With an assumption that GCs are generally old, GC colors have been used as a proxy of GC metallicities. Bimodal GC color distributions observed in most large galaxies have, for decades, been interpreted as bimodal metallicity distributions, indicating the presence of two populations within a galaxy. However, the conventional view has been challenged by a new theory that non-linear GC color-metallicity relations (CMRs) can cause a bimodal color distribution even from a single-peaked metallicity distribution. Using the photometric and spectroscopic data of NGC 5128 GCs in combination with stellar population simulation models, we examine the effect of non-linearity in GC CMRs on the transformation of GC color distributions into metallicity distributions. Although, in some colors, offsets are present between observations and models in the CMRs, their overall shape agrees well for various colors. After the offsets are corrected, the observed spectroscopic metallicity distribution is well reproduced via modeled CMRs from various color distributions having different morphologies. On the other hand, the linearly converted metallicity distributions from GC colors show a significant discrepancy with the observed spectroscopic metallicity distribution. We discuss the implications of our results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.58.1-58.1
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• 2014

Energetic gas outflows from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) may have a crucial role in galaxy evolution. In this contribution, we present a census of ionized gas outflows using a large sample (~23,000) of local (z < 0.1) type-2 AGNs selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR 7. By measuring the velocity offset of narrow emission lines, i.e., [O III] ${\lambda}5007$ and the Balmer lines, with respect to the systemic velocity measured from the stellar absorption lines, we find ~47% of AGNs showing an [O III] line-of-sight velocity offset ${\geq}20km\;s-1$. The fraction in type-2 AGNs is similar to that in type-1 AGNs after considering the projection effect. AGNs with larger [O III] velocity offsets, in particular with no or weak $H{\alpha}$ velocity offsets, tend to have higher Eddington ratios, implying that the [O III] velocity offset is related to on-going black hole activity. Also, we find the different distributions of the host galaxy inclination between the AGNs with blueshifted [O III] and the AGNs with redshifted [O III], supporting the model of biconical outflow with dust obscuration. Meanwhile, for ~3% of AGNs, [O III] and $H{\alpha}$ exhibit comparable large velocity offsets, suggesting a more complex gas kinematics than decelerating outflows in the narrow-line region.