• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.47.1-47.1
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• 2017

We study the alignment of kinematic position angles (PAkin) of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster using Atlas3D data. The PAkin represent the direction of the angular momentum of the galaxies better than the photometric position angles. Therefore, the alignment of their PA$_{kin}$ is a useful tool to trace the momentum direction. The early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster have been known to be distributed as filamentary structures inside the cluster. We found that their PAkin are aligned to two directions of 20degree and -80degree. This fact is confirmed using the bootstrap test, and that is, the two alignment angles are statistically significant. Besides, these two angles are surprisingly aligned parallel to the filamentary structures inside the cluster. These results suggest that early-type galaxies were formed by major merging in the filament structures and then fall into the Virgo cluster while maintaining their position angles.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.75.3-75.3
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• 2019

Understanding how ram pressure stripping (RPS) affects the star formation activity of cluster galaxies is one of the important issues in astrophysics. To examine whether we can identify any discernible trend in the star formation activity of galaxies undergoing ram pressure stripping, we study the star formation properties of galaxies in the Virgo cluster for which high-resolution HI images are available. We first classify galaxies in the Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog into different stages of RPS based on their HI morphology, HI deficiency, and location in phase space. We then examine various star formation activity indicators of these galaxies, which include starburstiness, g - r color, and WISE [3.4]-[12] color. No noticeable enhancement in star formation was identified for galaxies undergoing early or active stripping. Our results suggest that star formation activity at best seems to be enhanced locally in such galaxies, making it challenging to detect with integrated photometry. With the combination of HI deficiencies and locations in phase space, we were instead able to capture the overall quenching of star formation activity with increasing degree of ram pressure stripping, which agree with previous studies.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.161-175
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• 2011

We examine the dependence of the morphology of spiral galaxies on the environment using the KIAS Value Added Galaxy Catalog (VAGC) which is derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7. Our goal is to understand whether the local environment or global conditions dominate in determining the morphology of spiral galaxies. For the analysis, we conduct a morphological classification of galaxies in 20 X-ray selected Abell clusters up to z~0.06, using SDSS color images and the X-ray data from the Northern ROSAT All-Sky (NORAS) catalog. We analyze the distribution of arm classes along the clustercentric radius as well as that of Hubble types. To segregate the effect of local environment from the global environment, we compare the morphological distribution of galaxies in two X-lay luminosity groups, the low-$L_x$ clusters ($L_x$ < $0.15{\times}10^{44}$erg/s) and high-$L_x$ clusters ($L_x$ > $1.8{\times}10^{44}$erg/s). We find that the morphology-clustercentric relation prevails in the cluster environment although there is a brake near the cluster virial radius. The grand design arms comprise about 40% of the cluster spiral galaxies with a weak morphology-clustercentric radius relation for the arm classes, in the sense that flocculent galaxies tend to increase outward, regardless of the X-ray luminosity. From the cumulative radial distribution of cluster galaxies, we found that the low-$L_x$ clusters are fully virialized while the high-$L_x$ clusters are not.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.76.2-76.2
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• 2015

We present the results of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) HI imaging study of seven late-type galaxies. They are located in the outskirts of the Virgo cluster, possibly along a filament connected to Virgo from the north-west. Most galaxies in this region are found to be HI-rich, containing more HI gas compared to field galaxies with similar size and optical luminosity. The positions of the sample with respect to the cluster and their high HI mass-to-light ratios suggest that the selected galaxies might be accreting more gas from their surroundings while falling into the cluster. By high-resolution HI imaging, we aim to find evidence that galaxies are pre-processed by gas accretion from the intergalactic medium and/or gas-rich neighbors. We probe the detailed HI morphology/kinematics and the star formation properties of the sample. All of these galaxies are found with a large HI disk which is quite extended compared to their stellar disk. Together with kinematical peculiarities, this strongly suggests that cold gas accretion is responsible for active star formation in these galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2014

Galaxy morphology is involved complex effects of both secular and non-secular evolution of galaxies. Although it is a final product of a galaxy evolution, it may give a clue for the process that the galaxy suffer. Galaxy clusters are the sites where the most massive galaxies are found, and the most dramatic merger histories are embedded. Morphology study in nearby universe, e.g. Virgo cluster, is well established, but for clusters at z ~ 0.1 it is only focused on bright galaxies due to observational limits. Our optical deep imaging of 14 Abell clusters at z = 0.014 - 0.16 using IMACS f/2 on a Magellan Badde 6.5-m telescope and MegaCam on a 3.8-m CFHT enable to classify detailed morphology. For the galaxies in our data, we investigated their morphology with several criteria related to secular or merger related evolution. Our research on detailed morphology of thousands of galaxies through deep imaging would give a general census of cluster galaxies and help to estimate the evolution of cluster galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.62.2-62.2
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• 2011

It is well known that the cluster environment can change the atomic gas properties of galaxies through tidal interactions and/or by the hot cluster medium. Meanwhile, the molecular gas is expected to be less vulnerable to its surroundings due to its higher density, and no obvious influence of the environment on the molecular gas properties had been found among cluster spirals until recently. However, in a recent study by Fumagalli et al. (2009) of a sub-sample of Virgo spirals, it has been suggested that HI deficient galaxies can be also CO deficient. In order to further investigate if the HI deficiency indeed can result in the deficiency in molecular gas content, we compare the global CO and HI gas properties of Virgo spirals with those of galaxies in the Ursa Major cluster and the Pisces cluster, much lower density environments than Virgo. We discuss possible consequences of molecular gas deficiency in star formation activity of spiral galaxies in high density environment.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.37.2-37.2
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• 2018

We present the results from a spectroscopic survey of the nearby galaxy cluster Abell 2107 at z=0.04 that has been known as a rotating cluster. By combining 978 new redshifts from the MMT/Hectospec observations with the data in the literature, we construct a large sample of 1968 galaxies with measured redshifts at R<60', which results in high (80%) and spatially uniform completeness at $m_{r,Petro,0}<19.1$. We use this sample to study the global rotation of the cluster and its connection to the large-scale structures in the universe. We first apply the caustic method to the sample and identify 285 member galaxies in Abell 2107 at R<60'. We then measure the rotation amplitude and the position angle of rotation axis. The member galaxies show strong global rotation at R<20' ($V/{\sigma}{\sim}0.60-0.70$) with a significance of >3.8 ${\sigma}$, which is confirmed by two independent methods. The rotation becomes weaker in outer regions. We find at least four filamentary structures at $R<30h^{-1}Mpc$ smoothly connected to the cluster galaxies, which can suggest that the global rotation of the cluster is induced by the inflow of galaxies from the surrounding large-scale structures in the universe.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.52.1-52.1
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• 2017

Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound systems and thus probably the most recent objects to form. One of promising routes to understand the assembly history of galaxy clusters is to measure observable quantities of components in clusters that are sensitive to the evolutionary state of the cluster. Recent deep observations on the nearby clusters show distinct diffuse intracluster light (ICL), that the light from stars are not bound any individual cluster galaxy, however until now this component has not been well studied due to its faint nature, with typical brightness of ~100 times fainter than the sky background. As shown in galaxy cluster simulation studies, the ICL abundance increases during various dynamical exchanges of galaxies such as the disruption of dwarf galaxies, major mergers between galaxies and the tidal stripping of galaxies. Thus, the ICL is an effective tool to measure the evolutionary stage of galaxy clusters. Moreover, the investigation of the ICL evolution mechanism will allow us understand the galaxy evolution process therein. In this pilot study, we target the Coma cluster, where the existing ICL studies are limited only in the central region. With large and uniform deep optical images from the Subaru telescope, available only recently (Okabe et al. 2014), we are developing a robust ICL measurement technique, extracting the ICL surface brightness and color profiles, which will allow us to study the origin of the ICL and its connection to the evolutionary history of the Coma cluster. For the next phase, we plan to utilize the plenty of spectroscopy data from the MMT telescope to compare ICL properties with the star formation history of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCG), and discuss the ICL formation mechanism of the Coma cluster by comparing the distribution of cluster galaxies with the distribution of diffuse light inside the Coma cluster.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.77.3-78
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• 2015

It is known that the galaxy evolution by direct interaction between galaxies is most active in a galaxy group. As a result, the satellite galaxies are closely related to their central galaxy in properties such as morphology, color and star formation rate (so-called 'galactic conformity'). However, it is not clear yet whether such conformity between galaxies is found in a galaxy cluster. Recently, Lee et al. (2014) have found a measurable correlation between the colors of bright galaxies and the mean colors of their faint companions in a cluster WHL J085910.0+294957 at z = 0.3, using the photometrically-selected cluster members. They suggest that such correlation may be the vestige of infallen groups in the cluster as one possibility. In order to confirm the small-scale conformity in galaxy clusters with higher reliability, we study the Virgo cluster using the Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog (EVCC). The cluster members are selected spectroscopically unlike in WHL J085910.0+294957. We examine the galactic conformity in two distinct areas of the Virgo cluster: the inner X-ray emission region and its outer region. We find a marginal conformity in color (> $2{\sigma}$ significance to bootstrap uncertainty) in the outer region, while no meaningful signal of small-scale conformity is detected in the X-ray emission region. We discuss the implication of this result, focusing on cluster mass assembly and cluster environmental effects on galaxy evolution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.75.3-75.3
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• 2017

We Investigate dust stripping of Virgo cluster galaxies that are known to suffer HI gas stripping. The gas stripping phenomena of these galaxies may result from either ram pressure induced by the hot intracluster medium or gravitational tidal interactions between galaxies. While much efforts have been made to directly detect gas removed from cluster galaxies, the spatial distributions of dust, which should also be affected, are hardly known. Several previous studies have tried to directly detect the morphology of gas or dust using radio or infrared observations, but such approaches are hard to widely apply because of the limit of observational resolution and sensitivity. In this study, we try a different approach using optical data: measuring the background galaxy reddening by the dust stripped from the Virgo cluster members. Based on optical color excess maps of the background galaxies, we compare the ambient dust distribution with the HI morphology of the Virgo galaxies. We discuss how efficiently dust stripping can be detected with this method and how the stripped dust is associated with the removed gas according to HI gas stripping stage over the sample.