• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.49.1-49.1
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• 2013

We present a new galaxy classification scheme in the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) [$3.4{\mu}m$]-[$12{\mu}m$] color versus $12{\mu}m$ luminosity diagram. In this diagram, galaxies can be classified into three groups in different evolutionary stages. Late-type galaxies are distributed linearly along "MIR star-forming sequence" identified by Hwang et al. (2012). Some early-type galaxies show another sequence at [3.4]-[12] $(AB){\simeq}-2.0$, and we call this 'MIR blue sequence'. They are quiescent systems with old stellar population older than 10 Gyr. Between the MIR star-forming sequence and the MIR blue sequence, some early- and late-type galaxies are sparsely distributed, and we call these galaxies 'MIR green cloud galaxies'. Interestingly, both MIR blue sequence galaxies and MIR green cloud ones lie on the red sequence in the optical color-magnitude diagram. However, MIR green cloud galaxies have lower stellar masses and younger stellar populations (smaller $D_n4000$) than MIR blue sequence galaxies, suggesting that MIR green cloud galaxies are in the transition stage from MIR star-forming sequence galaxies to MIR blue sequence ones. We present differences in various galaxy properties between the three MIR classes using a multi-wavelength data, combined with the WISE and Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 10, of local (0.03 < z < 0.07) galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.41.1-41.1
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• 2010

It has been suggested that merging plays an important role in the formation and the evolution of early-type galaxies. Optical-NIR color gradients of early-type galaxies in high density environments are found to be less steep than those in low density environment, hinting frequent merger activities in early-type galaxies in high density environment. In order to confirm if the flat color gradient is the result of dry merger, we decided to look deeply to find merging features and get their relation with color gradient. We selected samples which show extreme values of optical-NIR color gradients based on the data of previous study, and observed them at Maidanak observatory 1.5m telescope with long exposure. After masking out overlaid sources, our analysis reveals that these galaxies do not have extreme color gradient values. High degree sky flat technique was used during observation to aid discovery of faint, extended features. However, flatness of detector (SNUCAM) was good enough, so we could not see any marked improvement in image quality compared to those using normal sky flats. Additionally we noticed a feature that looks like merging tidal tail in the CFHT archival image, but this does not show up on the image we obtained. This demonstrates that flatness and correct sky estimation is very important when we look for faint merging features. In future we plan to enlarge the number of the sample.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.36.1-36.1
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• 2014

The correlation between mass of Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) host galaxies and Hubble residual is now well-established. The origin of this relation, however, is yet to be understood. We have used low-resolution spectra of early-type hosts from YONSEI (YOnsei Nearby Supernovae Evolution Investigation) project to measure central velocity dispersion and Lick/IDS absorption indices. By using the Evolutionary Population Synthesis (EPS) models, luminosity-weighted mean age and metallicity of host galaxies were determined from $H{\beta}$ and absorption lines. Here we will discuss the correlation between the velocity dispersion, which indicates the mass of galaxies, and mean age of stellar population in our sample of early-type host galaxies.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.36.2-36.2
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• 2009

We present GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer) far (FUV) and near (NUV) ultraviolet imaging of 34 nearby early-type galaxies from the SAURON representative sample of 48 E/S0 galaxies, all of which have ground-based optical imaging from the MDM Observatory. The surface brightness profiles of nine galaxies (~26 per cent) show regions with blue UV-optical colours suggesting recent star formation. Five of these (~15 per cent) show blue integrated UV-optical colours that set them aside in the NUV integrated colour-magnitude relation. These are objects with either exceptionally intense and localised NUV fluxes or blue UV-optical colours throughout. They also have other properties confirming they have had recent star formation, in particular Hbeta absorption higher than expected for a quiescent population and a higher CO detection rate. This suggests that residual star formation is more common in early-type galaxies than we are used to believe. NUV-blue galaxies are generally drawn from the lower stellar velocity dispersion (sigma_e <200 km/s) and thus lower dynamical mass part of the sample. We have also constructed the first UV Fundamental Planes and show that NUV blue galaxies bias the slopes and increase the scatters. If they are eliminated the fits get closer to expectations from the virial theorem. Although our analysis is based on a limited sample, it seems that a dominant fraction of the tilt and scatter of the UV Fundamental Planes is due to the presence of young stars in preferentially low-mass early-type galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.43.4-44
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• 2017

Bar fractions depend on the properties of host galaxies. However, the observational studies did not provide consistent tendency. We investigated the bar fractions and their dependence on properties of host galaxies using three bar classifications: visual inspection, ellipse fitting method and Fourier analysis from a volume-limited sample of 1,698 disk galaxies brighter than Mr=-15.2 within z = 0.01 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7). We found two causes to make the discrepancy in previous studies. One is caused by the difficulty in automatically identifying bars for bulge-dominated galaxies. In particular, ellipse fitting methods could miss early-type barred galaxies when a large bulge weakens the transition between a bar and disk. The other is caused by the difference in the correlation between the bar types and host morphology for strong bars and weak bars. Strong bars are preponderant in early-type spirals which are red, bulge-dominated and highly concentrated, whereas weak bars are frequent in late-type spirals which are blue, disk-dominate and less-concentrated. Therefore, how much weak bars they contain affects the trend of bar fraction on host galaxy properties. We also discuss the effect of host properties on the formation, evolution, and destruction of bars.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.29.2-29.2
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• 2013

The presence of dark energy, suggested from Type Ia supernovae (SNe) cosmology, is the most pronounced astronomical discovery made during the past decade. The basic assumption of this discovery is that the look-back time evolution of SNe luminosity would be negligible after light-curve correction. Several recent works, however, show that there are some differences in Hubble residual among host galaxies having different morphology and mass, indicating that SNe luminosity might be affected by population age. In order to investigate this more directly, we are continuing the YONSEI (YOnsei Nearby Supernovae Evolution Investigation) project, where we are obtaining low-resolution spectra of some 60 nearby early-type host galaxies. The early-type galaxies are preferred because the mean population ages and metallicities can be estimated from the absorption lines, and they are less affected by dust extinction. In this talk, we will report our progress in determining the ages and metallicities of host galaxies to investigate their correlation with the Hubble residual.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.67.1-67.1
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• 2011

Recent observations and modeling of globular clusters with multiple populations strongly indicate the presence of super helium-rich subpopulations in old stellar systems. Motivated by this, we have constructed new population synthesis models with and without helium-enhanced subpopulations to investigate their impact on the UV-upturn phenomenon of quiescent early-type galaxies. We find that our models with helium-enhanced subpopulations can naturally reproduce the strong UV-upturns observed in giant elliptical galaxies assuming an age similar to that of old globular clusters in the Milky Way. The major source of far-UV (FUV) flux, in this model, is relatively metal-poor and helium-enhanced hot horizontal branch stars and their progeny. The Burstein et al. (1988) relation of the FUV - V color with metallicity is also explained either by the variation of the fraction of helium-enhanced subpopulations or by the spread in mean age of stellar populations in early-type galaxies.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.135-140
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• 2005

This paper summarizes the recent progress made by our group at Seoul National University on studies of the evolution and formation of distant galaxies. Various research projects are currently underway, which include: (i) the number density of distant early-type galaxies (z < 1); (ii) the optical-NIR color gradient of nearby early-type galaxies; (iii) J - K-selected Extremely Red Objects (EROs) in field (CDF-S) and the cluster environment; and (iv) the Lyman-break galaxies in the Spitzer First Look Survey (FLS) field. These works will constrain the mass evolution and the star formation history of galaxies in different environments, and the results will serve as useful contraints on galaxy formation models.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.34.2-35
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• 2018

Galaxy transition from star-forming to quiescent, accompanied with morphology transformation, is one of the key unresolved issues in extragalactic astronomy. Although several environmental mechanisms have been proposed, a deeper understanding of the impact of environment on galaxy transition still requires much exploration. My Ph.D. thesis focuses on which environmental mechanisms are primarily responsible for galaxy transition in different environments and looks at what happens during the transition phase using multi-wavelength photometric/spectroscopic data, from UV to mid-infrared (MIR), derived from several large surveys (GALEX, SDSS, and WISE) and our GMOS-North IFU observations. Our multi-wavelength approach provides new insights into the *late* stages of galaxy transition with a definition of the MIR green valley different from the optical green valley. I will present highlights from three areas in my thesis. First, through an in-depth study of environmental dependence of various properties of galaxies in a nearby supercluster A2199 (Lee et al. 2015), we found that the star formation of galaxies is quenched before the galaxies enter the MIR green valley, which is driven mainly by strangulation. Then, the morphological transformation from late- to early-type galaxies occurs in the MIR green valley. The main environmental mechanisms for the morphological transformation are galaxy-galaxy mergers and interactions that are likely to happen in high-density regions such as galaxy groups/clusters. After the transformation, early-type MIR green valley galaxies keep the memory of their last star formation for several Gyr until they move on to the next stage for completely quiescent galaxies. Second, compact groups (CGs) of galaxies are the most favorable environments for galaxy interactions. We studied MIR properties of galaxies in CGs and their environmental dependence (Lee et al. 2017), using a sample of 670 CGs identified using a friends-of-friends algorithms. We found that MIR [3.4]-[12] colors of CG galaxies are, on average, bluer than those of cluster galaxies. As CGs are located in denser regions, they tend to have larger early-type galaxy fractions and bluer MIR color galaxies. These trends can also be seen for neighboring galaxies around CGs. However, CG members always have larger early-type fractions and bluer MIR colors than their neighboring galaxies. These results suggest that galaxy evolution is faster in CGs than in other environments and that CGs are likely to be the best place for pre-processing. Third, post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) are an ideal laboratory to investigate the details of the transition phase. Their spectra reveal a phase of vigorous star formation activity, which is abruptly ended within the last 1 Gyr. Numerical simulations predict that the starburst, and thus the current A-type stellar population, should be localized within the galaxy's center (< kpc). Yet our GMOS IFU observations show otherwise; all five PSBs in our sample have Hdelta absorption line profiles that extend well beyond the central kpc. Most interestingly, we found a negative correlation between the Hdelta gradient slopes and the fractions of the stellar mass produced during the starburst, suggesting that stronger starbursts are more centrally-concentrated. I will discuss the results in relation with the origin of PSBs.

• 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.