• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.76.2-76.2
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• 2012

We present the first simulations of cosmic reionization that include the first stars and their radiative feedback that limited their formation, in a volume large enough to capture the spatial variations that affected the process and its observability. We show hat these first stars made reionization begin much earlier than without, and was reatly extended, which boosts the intergalactic electron-scattering optical depth and the large-angle polarization fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) significantly. Although within current WMAP uncertainties, this will enable Planck see he signature of the first stars at high redshift, currently undetectable by other probes.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.72.2-72.2
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• 2011

We have performed the first self-consistent, large-scale simulation of cosmic reionization by stellar sources, including the Population III stars that emerged and were hosted by minihalos at very high redshifts (z~40). Based on this result, we calculate the redshifted radiation background from these stars and the relic H II regions which can be observed at near-infrared and infrared regime. Formation of the first stars inside minihalos are quenched by radiative feedback at z~15, while the relic H II regions have much longer lifetime due to the slow recombination rate. Therefore, the radiation output from the relic H II regions, dominated by Lyman alpha photons, will be observed both in the near-infrared and infrared regime. The estimated background from the first stars inside minihalos are still sub-dominant compared to that from stars inside larger halos, however, and thus complementary observations are necessary, such as redshifted 21-cm line observation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.68.3-68.3
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• 2019

Even though the initial mass function (IMF) of the first generation of stars played important roles in reionization of the universe, subsequent star formation, and chemical enrichment of the universe, it is still very uncertain. In this study, among the several indirect ways of estimating the IMF of the population III (Pop III) stars, we make use of extremely metal-poor (EMP; [Fe/H] < -3.0) stars in the Milky Way, in order to infer the characteristic mass range of Pop III stars. As the progenitors of many of the EMP stars are known to be Pop III stars, we attempt to construct the characteristic mass range of the progenitors (e.g., Pop III stars) of the EMP stares by comparing their observed abundance pattern of various chemical elements with chemical yields from supernova models.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.118.1-118.1
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• 2014

Stars create and expel new chemical elements and dust at the end of the stellar life cycle. Therefore, understanding the evolved stars, their mass loss process, and the conditions of the returning material to be mixed with the surrounding interstellar medium is an important step toward studies on the new generation of stars as well as the evolution of cosmic elements in galactic scale. I will review the first results from the ALMA Early Science on the evolved stars and direct future works.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.44.4-45
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• 2017

We report the first detection of RR Lyrae variable stars in the Crater II dwarf galaxy, a recently discovered ultra-faint satellite of the Milky Way. Based on B, V time series photometry obtained with the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet) at CTIO, Chile, we have identified ~45 fundamental-mode (ab-type) and ~2 first-overtone (c-type) RR Lyrae stars by adopting template light-curve fitting method. Our preliminary analysis suggests an Oosterhoff-intermediate classification of this galaxy from the mean period of the RRab stars, <$P_{ab}$> ${\simeq}0.63$ days, and the location of them on the period-amplitude diagram. We discuss the properties of the RR Lyare stars in this galaxy.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.67.2-67.2
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• 2021

We present preliminary results on the chemical and kinematic analysis of accreted and heated metal-rich (-1.0 < [Fe/H] < -0.3) stars in the Galactic disk. These stars are in the ranges of e > 0.7, -100 < V_𝜙 < 100 km/s, and |Z| < 3 kpc, and are presumably heated (accreted) by (from) past merger events such as Gaia Enceladus and Sausage (GSE). These stars are largely separated into two groups based on the level of [α/Fe] and radial velocity dispersion. The first group has low [α/Fe] and high radial velocity dispersion, and the second group shows high [α/Fe] and low radial velocity dispersion. We propose that the first group of stars are accreted from the GSE galaxy, whereas the second group of stars are dynamically heated by the GSE merger event.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.79.2-79.2
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• 2010

We present the results of simultaneous observations of SiO v=1, 2, J=1-0, $^{29}SiO$ v=0, J=1-0, and $H_2O$ $6_{16}-5_{23}$ maser lines performed with the KVN Yonsei 21 m radio telescope from 2009 Nov. to 2010 Jan (ApJ, 719, 126, 2010). We searched for these masers in 47 symbiotic stars and detected maser emission from 21 stars, giving the first time detection from 19 stars. Both SiO and $H_2O$ masers were detected from seven stars of which six stars are D-type symbiotic and one is an S-type star, WRAY 15-1470. In the SiO maser emission, the $^{28}SiO$ v=1 maser was detected from 10 stars, while the v=2 maser detected from 15 stars. In particular, the $^{28}SiO$ v=2 maser emission without the v=1 maser detection was detected from nine stars with its detection rate of 60 %, which is much higher than that of isolated Miras/red giants. The $^{29}SiO$ v=0 maser emission was also detected from two stars, H 2-38 and BF Cyg, together with the $^{28}SiO$ v=2 maser. We conclude that these different observational results between isolated Miras/red giants and symbiotic stars may be related with the presence of hot companions in a symbiotic binary system.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.68.2-68.2
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• 2019

Chemical abundance ratios of ultra metal-poor (UMP; [Fe/H] < -4.0) stars can provide important constraints on the early chemical enrichment of the Milky Way (MW), associated with the nucleosynthesis processes that occurred during the evolution of their progenitors, which are presumably the first generation of stars. Despite their importance, only about thirty UMP stars have been discovered thus far. In an effort to identify such stars additionally, we selected UMP candidates from low-resolution (R ~ 2000) spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), and obtained with Gemini/GRACES high-resolution (R ~ 40,000) spectra of 15 UMP candidates. In this study, we present the results of the chemical abundance analysis of the UMP candidates. Furthermore, we compare the abundance patterns of our UMP stars with those of various metal-poor stars from literature to understand the early chemical evolution of the MW.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.38.1-38.1
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• 2017

Symbiotic stars are long-orbital-period interacting binaries characterized by extended emission over the whole electromagnetic range and by complex photometric and spectroscopic variability. In this contribution, I will present some high-cadence, long-term optical light curves of confirmed and candidate symbiotic stars in the Magellanic Clouds. By careful visual inspection and combined time series analysis techniques, we investigate for the first time in a systematic way the photometric properties of these astrophysical objects, trying in particular to distinguish the evolutionary status of the cool component, to provide its first-order pulsation ephemeris and to link all this information with the physical parameters of the binary system as a whole. Finally, I will discuss a new, promising photometric technique, potentially able to discover Symbiotic Stars in the Local Group of Galaxies without the recourse to costly spectroscopic follow-up.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.57.3-57.3
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• 2015

The formation of the Milky Way stellar halo is thought to be the result of merging and accretion of building blocks such as dwarf galaxies and massive globular clusters. Recently, Deason et al. (2015) suggested that the Milky Way outer halo formed mostly from big building blocks, such as dwarf spheroidal galaxies, based on the similar number ratio of blue straggler (BS) stars to blue horizontal-branch (BHB) stars. Here we demonstrate, however, that this result is seriously biased by not taking into detailed consideration on the formation mechanism of BHB stars from helium enhanced second-generation population. In particular, the high BS-to-BHB ratio observed in the outer halo fields is most likely due to a small number of BHB stars provided by GCs rather than to a large number of BS stars. This is supported by our dynamical evolution model of GCs which shows preferential removal of first generation stars in GCs. Moreover, there are sufficient number of outer halo GCs which show very high BS-to-BHB ratio. Therefore, the BS-to-BHB number ratio is not a good indicator to use in arguing that more massive dwarf galaxies are the main building blocks of the Milky Way outer halo. Several lines of evidence still suggest that GCs can contribute a signicant fraction of the outer halo stars.