• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.47.4-47.4
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• 2019

Recent observations on the double red clumps in the bulge validate the close connection in stellar populations between Galactic globular clusters (GCs) and the Milky Way (MW) bulge. Intriguingly, diverse phenomena observed in early-type galaxies (ETGs) and their GC systems are also indicating the similarities with Galactic GCs with multiple populations. Here, we present the population synthesis for the Galactic bulge and ETGs using stellar populations observed in the Galactic GCs with multiple populations. Our new models well explain observations of both the MW bulge and ETGs. Also, the inclusion of GC-originated population to the population synthesis model shows substantial impacts on the age-dating of stellar populations. The implication of this result for the interpretation of the formation history and the age-dating of ETGs will be discussed in detail.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.47.2-47.2
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• 2013

We have performed a set of high-resolution simulations of nuclear star-forming ring that results in an inward gas migration from the galactic disk. Our simulations consider gas heating/cooling, star formation, and supernova feedback. The galactic potential was obtained from a snapshot of a 6.3 million particle simulation of a galactic disk at 1 Gyr, which manifests spiral arms and pseudo-bulge. The potential was modeled with a combination of 3-dimensional spherical (for the pseudo-bulge) and 2-dimensional cylindrical (for the disk) multipole expansion technique. With such a potential model, one can easily set up various realistic 3-dimensional potential models by slightly changing the expansion coefficients. We have performed a set of simulations with a few million gas particles covering the central ~6 kpc of the disk for different pseudo-bulge sizes and non-axisymmetry, and we report the dependence of the gas inflow rate, size of the star-forming ring, and star-formation rate in the ring on the size and strength of the non-axisymmetry in the bulge.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.32.2-32.2
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• 2015

Which mechanism governs star-formation activity in galaxies is still one of the most important, open questions in galactic astronomy. To address this issue, we investigate the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of late-type galaxies as functions of various structural parameters including the morphology, mass, radius, and mass compactness (MC). We use a sample of ~200,000 late-type galaxies with z = 0.02 ~ 0.2 from SDSS DR7 and a catalog of bulge-disk decomposition (Simard et al. 2011; Mendel et al. 2013). We find a remarkably strong correlation between bulge's MC and galaxy's sSFR, in the sense that galaxies with more compact bulge tend to be of lower sSFR. This seems counter-intuitive given that galactic sSFR is driven predominantly by disks rather than bulges and suggests that the central mass density plays a key role in recent star-forming activity. We discuss the physical cause of the new findings in terms of the bulge growth history and AGN activities.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.117-123
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• 2020

We investigate the plausibility of mass return, from stellar mass loss processes within the central ~100 pc region of the Milky Way (the inner nuclear bulge), as a mass supply mechanism for the Circumnuclear Disk (CND). Gas in the Galactic disk migrates inward to the Galactic centre due to the asymmetric potential caused by the Galactic bar. The inward migration of gas stops and accumulates to form the central molecular zone (CMZ), at 100-200 pc from the Galactic center. It is commonly assumed that stars have formed in the CMZ throughout the lifetime of the Galaxy and have diffused inward to form a 'r-2 stellar cusp' within the inner nuclear bulge. We propose that the stars migrating inward from the CMZ supply gas to the inner nuclear bulge via stellar mass loss, resulting in the formation of a gas disk along the Galactic plane and subsequent inward migration down to the central 10 pc region (CND). We simulate the evolution of a gas distribution that initially follows the stellar distribution of the aforementioned stellar cusp, and illustrate the potential gas supply toward the CND.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.38.1-38.1
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• 2008

Tides caused by the Galactic gravitational field affect the current dynamical structure of globular clusters in the Galaxy. Indeed, the observed feature of tidal tails stretching beyond globular clusters' tidal radii provides a key information of interaction with the gravitational field of the Galaxy and kinematical orbit of the clusters, which can be an evidence of the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation and evolution. To find such a tidal feature, we have studied spatial density distribution of stars around five globular clusters in the Galactic halo and one cluster in the Galactic bulge, for which we have used wide-field deep photometric data of gri and JHK bands obtained from the MegaCam and WIRCam of the CFHT. Applying the statistical contrast filtering of field stars in the color-magnitude plane of detected stars around five halo clusters, we have found features of tidal tails for four clusters M53, M15, NGC 5053, and NGC 5466. The detected over-density tidal features are well aligned with the cluster's orbits and stretched into the direction of the Galactic center. Statistical analysis indicate that these tidal tails are believed to be cluster stars that have escaped due to the tidal effects to the clusters. A similar tidal feature to that of halo clusters is also detected for the bulge cluster NGC 6626, while the over-density feature seems to be extended into the Galactic plane rather than into the orbital direction and the Galactic center. Conclusively, our result adds further observational evidence of the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation and evolution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.40.3-41
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• 2016

Previous HI survey data have shown that the central HI gas in the Milky Way that resides within ~1.5 kpc of the Galactic Centre (GC) is tilted by ${\sim}15^{\circ}$ with respect to the Galactic plane. Although several models, such as a tilted disk model, have been suggested to interpret the observed morphology of the HI layer, it is still unknown what causes and how it preserves its tilted structure. We study the behavior of a gas disk near the GC using an N-body / SPH code. Our galaxy model includes four components; nuclear bulge, bulge, disk and halo. We construct a HI model whose radius is 1.3 kpc, scale height is 100 pc and mass is $3.6{\times}10^6M_{\odot}$. We also assume that the gas disk is initially tilted $30^{\circ}$ with respect to the Galactic plane. Here we report our simulation results and discuss the evolution of the tilted gas disk.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.203-224
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• 2013

Wide-field $JHK_s$ images obtained with the SIRIUS near-infrared camera of the IRSF 1.4m telescope are used to examine the tidal structures of the spatial stellar configuration around six metal-poor ([Fe/H]< -1.0) globular clusters located within 3 kpc from the Galactic center. The radial surface density profiles are obtained from the surface photometry of the cluster images and the star counting for the photometric data. For the star counting, candidates of cluster member stars are selected with an filtering algorithm in color-magnitude diagrams. We find that the six target clusters show tidal overdensity features in the radial surface density profiles. There is a break inside the tidal radius for each cluster, and the profile in the outer overdensity region is characterized by a power law. Two-dimensional density maps of all the clusters show distorted asymmetric stellar configurations in the outer region. In five out of the six target clusters, the overdensity features are likely to be associated with the effects of the Galaxy dynamical interaction and the cluster space motions. The observed tidal configurations of stars suggest that several metal-poor clusters in the Galactic bulge are possibly surviving remnants of mergers to build the old stellar system of the Galactic bulge.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.191-194
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• 2012

The observed distribution of a blending-corrected sample of Einstein ring crossing times, $t_E$, for microlensing events toward the galactic bulge/bar are analyzed. An inspection of the distribution of crossing times suggests that it may be bimodal, indicating that two populations of lenses could be responsible for observed microlensing events. Given the possibility that microlensing in this direction can be due to the two most common classes of stars, main-sequence and white dwarf, we analyze and show via Monte Carlo simulations that the observed bimodality of $t_E$ can be derived from their accepted mass functions, and the density distributions of both stellar populations in the galactic disk and bulge/bar, with a transverse velocity distribution that is consistent with the density distribution. Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) one sample tests shows that a white dwarf population of about 25% of all stars in the galaxy agrees well with the observed bimodality with a KS significance level greater than 97%. This is an expanded and updated version of a previous investigation (Wickramasinghe, Neusima, & Struble, in Mao 2008). A power-point version of the talk, with introductory figures, is found at: https://sites.google.com/site/rhkochconference/agenda-1/program.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.29.4-30
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• 2009

Extra-tidal feature of the globular clusters such as tidal tails and halos can be a crucial evidence of the merging scenario of the Galaxy formation in the dynamical point of view. To search for such an extra-tidal feature of globular clusters located in the Galactic bulge(RGC<3kpc), we obtained wide-field near-infrared JHKs images of 6 metal-poor ([Fe/H]<-1.0) clusters and 3 metal-rich ([Fe/H]>-1.0) clusters. Observations were carried out using IRSF 1.4m telescope and SIRIUS near-infrared camera, during 2006~2007. The obtained images have a total maximum field-of-view of ~ $21'\times 21'$. To select clusters' member stars and minimize the field star contaminations, we applied CMD masking algorithm. Smoothed surface density contour maps with selected stars for each cluster show overdensity features around the tidal radius and beyond. Also, radial surface density profiles within the tidal radius of the clusters show an overdensity feature as a change of slope of the radial profile. The results add further observational constraints of the formation of the Galactic bulge.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.82.1-82.1
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• 2010

We have investigated the spatial configuration of stars within the tidal radius of metal poor globular cluster NGC 6626 in the bulge direction. Data were obtained in near-IR J,H,Ks bands with wide-field ($20'\times20'$) detector, WIRCam at CFHT. To trace the stellar density around target cluster, we sorted cluster's member stars by using a mask filtering algorithm and weighting the stars on the color-magnitude diagram. From the weighted surface density map, we found that the stellar spatial distributions within the tidal radius appear asymmetric and distorted features. Especially, we found that more prominent over-density features are extending toward the direction of Galactic plane rather than toward the directions of the Galactic center and its orbital motion. This orientation of the stellar density distribution can be interpreted with result of disk-shock effect of the Galaxy that the cluster had been experienced. Indeed, this over-density feature are well represented in the radial surface density profile for different angular sections. As one of the metal poor globular clusters with extended horizontal branch (EHB) in the bulge direction, NGC 6626 is kinematically decoupled from the normal clusters and known to have disk motion of peculiar motion. Thus, our result will be able to add further constraints to understand the origin of this cluster and the formation of bulge region in early universe.