• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.389-392
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• 2015

We identify a strong lensing galaxy in the cluster IRC 0218 that is spectroscopically confirmed to be at z = 1.62, making it the highest-redshift strong lens galaxy known. The lens is one of the two brightest cluster galaxies and lenses a background source galaxy into an arc and a counterimage. With Hubble Space Telescope (HST) grism and Keck/LRIS spectroscopy, we measure the source redshift to be $z_S=2.26$. Using HST imaging, we model the lens mass distribution with an elliptical power-law profile and account for the effects of the cluster halo and nearby galaxies. The Einstein radius is $^{\theta}E=0.38^{+0.02{\prime}{\prime}}_{-0.01}$ ($3.2^{+0.2}_{-0.1}kpc$) and the total enclosed mass is $M_{tot}(<^{\theta}_E)=1.8^{+0.2}_{-0.1}{\times}10^{11}M_{\odot}$. We estimate that the cluster environment contributes ~ 10% of this total mass. Assuming a Chabrier IMF, the dark matter fraction within $^{\theta}E$ is $f^{Chab}_{DM}=0.3^{+0.1}_{-0.3}$, while a Salpeter IMF is marginally inconsistent with the enclosed mass ($f^{Salp}_{DM}=-0.3^{+0.2}_{-0.5}$).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.40.2-40.2
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• 2013

The properties of bright galaxies are closely related to those of their nearby neighbors and satellite galaxies. In addition, the properties of galaxies in clusters are known to be strongly affected by the cluster environment. These two environmental effects raise a question: how significantly do nearby neighbors and satellite galaxies affect the properties of bright galaxies in a cluster? To address this issue, we reduce and analyze the deep and wide-field images of Abell 3659 (z ~ 0.0907) in the g' and r' bands obtained using IMACS on the Magellan (Baade) 6.5m telescope. The main goal of this study is to find out the relationship between the properties of bright galaxies and those of fainter companion galaxies in a cluster. This poster is a progress report, in which we present the sample selection and the preliminary results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.41.1-41.1
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• 2012

Interactions between the galactic interstellar medium (ISM) and the intra cluster medium (ICM) are believed to be one of the main processes affecting galaxy evolution in cluster environments. The aim of our research is to study the molecular gas properties of a galaxy under the ICM pressure in the cluster environment. It has been well known that cluster galaxies are deficient in atomic hydrogen gas (HI gas) compared to their field counterparts and now there is much evidence that low density ISM is being removed by ram pressure due to ICM wind. Meanwhile, no significant molecular gas deficiency of the cluster galaxy population has been found yet they show overall lower star formation rate than galaxies in the field, and it is still puzzling how the star formation could decrease without stripping of dense molecular gas. To address this issue, we probe the detailed molecular gas properties of NGC 4402, located near the cluster center, as part of a study of four spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. NGC 4402 is well known undergoing ram pressure stripping with a truncated HI disk($D_{HI}/D_{opt}$ - 0.75 and only 36% of HI gas compare to field galaxies of a similar size) and a disturbed gas morphology. Comparing the high resolution 12CO and 13CO data of NGC 4402 from the Sub Millimeter Array (SMA) with existing other wavelength data, we probe the spatial distribution and a physical condition of molecular gas under strong ICM pressure. We discuss the star formation activity might have been altered and hence how the global color of NGC4402 would change in the future.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.64.2-64.2
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• 2020

We present the properties of galaxies in filaments around the Virgo cluster with respect to their vertical distance from the filament spine. Using the NASA-Sloan Atlas and group catalogs, we select galaxies that do not belong to groups in filaments. The filament member galaxies are then defined as those located within 3.5 scale length from the filament spine. The filaments are mainly (~86%) composed of low-mass dwarf galaxies of logh2M∗/M⊙ < 9 dominantly located on the blue cloud in color-magnitude diagrams. We observe that the g - r color and stellar mass of galaxies correlate with their vertical distance from the filament spine in which the color becomes red and stellar mass decreases with increasing vertical filament distance. The galaxies were divided into two subsamples in different stellar mass ranges, with lower-mass (logh2M∗/M⊙ ≤ 8) galaxies showing a clear negative g-r color gradient, whereas higher-mass (logh2M∗/M⊙ > 8) galaxies have a flat distribution against the vertical filament distance. We observe a negative EW(Hα) gradient for higher-mass galaxies, whereas lower-mass galaxies show no distinct variation in EW(Hα) against the vertical filament distance. In contrast, the NUV - r color distribution of higher-mass galaxies shows no strong dependence on the vertical filament distance, whereas the lower-mass galaxies show a distinct negative NUV - r color gradient. We do not witness clear gradients of HI fraction in either the higher- or lower-mass subsamples. We propose that the negative color and stellar mass gradients of galaxies can be explained by mass assembly from past galaxy mergers at different vertical filament distances. In addition, galaxy interactions might be responsible for the contrasting features of EW(Hα) and NUV - r color distributions between the higher- and lower-mass subsamples. The HI fraction distributions of the two subsamples suggest that ram-pressure stripping and gas accretion could be ignorable processes in the Virgo filaments.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.34.1-34.1
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• 2016

Galaxy clusters are the sites where the most massive galaxies are found, and so the most dramatic merger histories are embedded. Our deep (mu ~ 28 mag/arcsec^2) images of Abell 119 at z = 0.044 using the Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO revealed post-merger signatures in ~35% of galaxies brighter than Mr < -19.5, suggesting that so many galaxies even in clusters have gone through galaxy mergers at recent epoch. We went further to understand the impact of mergers in cluster galaxies using stellar kinematics from the SAMI Integral Field Unit on the galaxies of Abell 119 in three aspects of kinematics : orientations, levels of rotation, and kinematic shapes. We found that 30% of the merger-featured galaxies show misalignment in the angle between the photometric major and the rotation axes, and most of them show complex kinematics. For comparison, only 5% of non-merger-featured galaxies show the misalignment. Moreover, our analysis using the Tully-Fisher relation shows that galaxy interactions can both enhance or reduce galaxy spin depending on the merger geometry. We present our preliminary result and discussion on the role of galaxy mergers in cluster environment from the perspective of kinematics.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.31.3-32
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• 2021

We quantify the relative role of galaxy environment and bar presence on AGN triggering in face-on spiral galaxies using a volume-limited sample with 0.02 < z < 0.055, Mr < 19.5, and σ > 70 km s-1 selected from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7. To separate their possible entangled effects, we divide the sample into bar and non-bar samples, and each sample is further divided into three environment cases of isolated galaxies, interacting galaxies with a pair, and cluster galaxies. The isolated case is used as a control sample. For these six cases, we measure AGN fractions at a fixed central star formation rate and central velocity dispersion, σ. We demonstrate that the internal process of the bar-induced gas inflow is more efficient in AGN triggering than the external mechanism of the galaxy interactions in groups and cluster outskirts. The significant effects of bar instability and galaxy environments are found in galaxies with a relatively less massive bulge. We conclude that from the perspective of AGN-galaxy coevolution, a massive black hole is one of the key drivers of spiral galaxy evolution. If it is not met, a bar instability helps the evolution, and in the absence of bars, galaxy interactions/mergers become important. In other words, in the presence of a massive central engine, the role of the two gas inflow mechanisms is reduced or almost disappears. We also find that bars in massive galaxies are very decisive in increasing AGN fractions when the host galaxies are inside clusters.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.17-35
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• 2021

We study galaxies undergoing ram pressure stripping in the Virgo cluster to examine whether we can identify any discernible trend in their star formation activity. We first use 48 galaxies undergoing different stages of stripping based on H i morphology, H i deficiency, and relative extent to the stellar disk, from the VIVA survey. We then employ a new scheme for galaxy classification which combines H i mass fractions and locations in projected phase space, resulting in a new sample of 365 galaxies. We utilize a variety of star formation tracers, which include g - r, WISE [3.4]-[12] colors, and starburstiness that are defined by stellar mass and star formation rates to compare the star formation activity of galaxies at different stripping stages. We find no clear evidence for enhancement in the integrated star formation activity of galaxies undergoing early to active stripping. We are instead able to capture the overall quenching of star formation activity with increasing degree of ram pressure stripping, in agreement with previous studies. Our results suggest that if there is any ram pressure stripping induced enhancement, it is at best locally modest, and galaxies undergoing enhancement make up a small fraction of the total sample. Our results also indicate that it is possible to trace galaxies at different stages of stripping with the combination of H i gas content and location in projected phase space, which can be extended to other galaxy clusters that lack high-resolution H i imaging.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.78.2-78.2
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• 2011

We utilize Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 spectroscopy of ~600 emission line galaxies (ELGs) in the Virgo and Ursa Major clusters to investigate their chemical properties depending on the environments. We derived chemical abundances of galaxies using either a direct estimation of the electron temperature or empirical calibrations. We also estimated star formation rates (SFRs) using H alpha and GALEX ultraviolet (UV) luminosities. We see no significant difference of UV colors and SFRs of ELGs between the Virgo and Ursa Major, indicating weak dependence of their star formation activity on global cluster environment. We also discuss the segregation of gas-phase element abundances in cluster environment.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.117.2-117.2
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• 2011

We probe 12CO J=2-1 and 13CO J=1-0 properties of a Virgo disk galaxy, NGC 4402 which is located near the cluster center. Our goal is to study the impact of intra cluster medium (ICM) on the molecular gas of a galaxy in the cluster environment. It has been believed that cluster galaxies are deficient in atomic hydrogen gas (HI gas) compared to their field counterparts and now there is much evidence that low density ISM can be easily removed by ram pressure caused by ICM wind. Meanwhile, no significant molecular gas deficiency of the cluster galaxy population has been found yet they show overall lower star formation rate than galaxies in the field, and it is still controversy whether dense ISM can be also stripped by the ICM wind or not. NGC 4402 with truncated HI disk($D_{HI}/D_{opt}$ ~ 0.75 and only 36%of HI gas compare to field galaxies of a similar size) and a disturbed gas morphology, appears to have strong ongoing ram pressure. Using high resolution 12 and 13CO data of NGC 4402 from a Sub Millimeter Array (SMA), we probe the molecular gas properties under strong ICM pressure. We discuss how its star formation activity and hence the global color of NGC4402 would be changed in the future.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.33.3-34
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• 2018

Galaxy clusters contain a diffuse component of stars outside galaxies, that is observed as intracluster light (ICL). Since the ICL abundance increases during various dynamical exchanges of galaxies, the amount of ICL can act as a measurement tool for the dynamical stage of galaxy clusters. There are two prominent ICL formation scenarios; one is related to the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) major mergers, and the other to the tidal stripping of galaxies. However, it is still under debate as to which is the main ICL formation mechanism. In this study we improve on earlier observational constraints of the ICL origin, by investigating it in a massive fossil cluster at z~0.47. Fossil clusters are believed to be dynamically matured galaxy clusters which have dominant BCGs. Recent simulation studies imply that, BCGs have assembled 85~90% of their mass by z~0.4 (e.g., Contini et al. 2014). Thus our target is an optimal test bed to examine the BCG-related scenario. Our deep images and Multi-Object Spectroscopic observations of the target fossil cluster (Gemini North 2018A) allow us to extract the ICL distribution, ICL color map and ICL fraction to cluster light. We will present a possible constraint of the ICL origin and discuss its connection to the BCG and the host galaxy cluster.