• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.88.1-88.1
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• 2012

We utilize Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 spectroscopic data of ~340 star forming galaxies in the Virgo cluster to investigate their chemical properties depending on the environments. The chemical evolution of galaxies is linked to their star formation histories (SFHs), as well as to the gas interchange in different environments. In this sense, galaxy metallicity could be an observable parameter providing information on the impact of the environment on the galaxy SFH and/or the galaxy gas content. Thus, we derived gaseous metallicity (e.g., oxygen abundance) of star forming galaxies located in different regions of the Virgo cluster using well-known empirical calibrations. We also estimated their star formation rate (SFR) using H alpha luminosity. Inorder to investigate the chemical properties of these galaxies, we examined relations between various parameters: metallicity vs. luminosity, SFR vs. luminosity, and metallicity vs. cluster-centric radius. From our results, we discuss environmental effects of cluster to the chemical properties of star forming galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.76.2-76.2
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• 2019

Shells in early-type galaxies are low surface brightness tidal debris, which are wide concentric arcs of overdense stellar regions with large opening angles. The most widely accepted mechanism today for shell formation is the merger scenario, but the dominant merger type producing shells is not clearly understood yet: major/minor and wet/dry mergers. Since shells are regarded as smoking-gun evidence of merging events, detailed understanding of shell galaxies is very useful to constrain the formation process of early-type galaxies. In this study, we investigate the metallicity gradients of eight early-type shell galaxies using CALIFA IFU data to better understand the nature and origins of galaxy shells. We estimate simple stellar population properties out to three effective radius from the measurement of Lick/IDS absorption line indices. We compare the metallicity gradients of shell galaxies with those of normal early-type galaxies in the same mass range. In this presentation, we discuss how much the gradients of shell galaxies are different from those of normal early-type galaxies and what the existence of galaxy shells implies about galaxy formation.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.261-263
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• 2015

The metallicity distribution of globular clusters (GCs) provides a crucial clue for the star formation history of their host galaxy. With the assumption that GCs are generally old, GC colors have been used as a proxy for GC metallicities. Bimodal color distributions of GCs observed in most large galaxies have, for decades, been interpreted as bimodal metallicity distributions, indicating the presence of two populations within a galaxy. However, the conventional view has been challenged by a new theory that non-linear GC color-metallicity relations can cause a bimodal color distribution even from a single-peaked metallicity distribution. Using photometric and spectroscopic data of NGC 5128 GCs in combination with stellar population simulation models, we examine the effect of non-linearity in GC color-metallicity relations on transformation of the color distributions into the metallicity distributions. Although in some colors offsets are present between observations and models for the color-metallicity relations, their overall shape agrees well for various colors. After the offsets are corrected, the observed spectroscopic metallicity distribution is well reproduced via modeled color-metallicity relations from various color distributions having different morphologies. We discuss the implications of our results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.75.3-75.3
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• 2019

The filament is an interesting structure in the Universe because clusters form at the nodes of filaments and grow through the continuous accretion of individual galaxies and groups from the surrounding filaments. We study the chemical properties of star-forming (SF) galaxies in the five large-scale filamentary structures (Leo II A, Leo II B, Leo Minor, Canes Venatici, and Virgo III) related with the Virgo cluster, with the spectroscopic data taken with the SDSS DR12, and compare them with those of the Virgo cluster and field galaxies. In mass-metallicity relation, most of the SF galaxies in Virgo-related filaments (except Virgo III filament) show lower metallicity on average than the Virgo cluster SF galaxies, but similar to field counterparts. These chemically less evolved feature of SF galaxies in the filaments and field are more pronounced for lower mass galaxies. This is probably because low mass galaxies have low potential wells and are therefore likely to be sensitive to cluster environmental effects. Interestingly, we find that the metallicity enhancement of SF galaxies in the Virgo III filament. In chemical and morphological perspectives, SF galaxies in the Virgo III thought to be transitional objects possibly transformed from SF late-type galaxies and are on the way to red early-type galaxies in the filament environment. This is the first discovery of systematic 'chemical pre-processing' signature for filament galaxies in Local Universe before they fall into the cluster.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.72.1-72.1
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• 2011

We investigate the relation between AGN gas metallicity and their host galaxy stellar metallicity using a sample of local Seyfert 1 galaxies. Stellar metallicity is measured from stellar absorption lines while AGN gas metallicity is derived from the flux ratios of UV emission lines. We use a high quality spectra obtained from the Lick AGN Monitoring Project, to obtain pure host galaxy spectra based on the spectral decomposition analysis, leading to accurate measurements of the Mg2 (5175) and Fe (5270) indices. In the case of AGN gas metallicity, we measure the ratio of NV1240 to CIV1549 lines using UV spectra from the archival IUE and HST STIS data. We will present the results of metallicity measurements and comparison between AGN and stellar metallicity, and discuss the implications of the results.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.35-38
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• 1996

Much of our knowledge about the formation and evolution of high-redshift galaxies has come from studying the absorption signatures they impress on the spectra of background QSOs. The damped Lyman $\alpha$ (DLA) systems, in particular, have proved to be valuable probes of the metallicity and dust at redshifts z $\~$2-3 in what are the likely progenitors of galaxies like our own. At z $\~$ 2 we find that the typical metallicity of the universe was 1/15 solar. In addition, we find clear evidence for the existence of trace amounts of interstellar dust in DLA galaxies and show that this is consistent with recent high resolution spectra of DLAs with the Keck telescope, despite claims to the contrary.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 1998

The $H{\beta}$ and some metal line indices, such as Mg2, Fe52 of single-age and single-metallicity populations are computed based on the method of evolutionary population synthesis, with careful consideration of the variation of the horizontal-branch morphology with metallicity and age. We find (a) that while metal lines are little af-fected, the $H{\beta}$ index is severely enhanced (up to 30%)by the presence of the blue horizontal-branch stars, frustrating the current age-estimations from this index with out careful consideration of these stars, and (b) that there is a systematic trend in the sense that the globular clusters in giant elliptical galaxies appear to be older than those in our Galaxy by several billion years. We also calculate these indices for the stellar populations with a metallicity spread, by adopting metallicity distribution functions predicted by chemical evolution models. The comparison of the models with the observed indices of the central regions of the early-type galaxies yields the results (a) that the ages of the giant elliptical galaxies would be older than the previous estimations by several billion years, and (b) that there is a considerable age spread among elliptical galaxies, in the sense that the giant elliptical galaxies are older than small ones.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.59-67
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• 2013

We present a spectroscopic study of 343 blue compact galaxies (BCGs) at 0.20 < z < 0.35 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 data. We derive gas phase oxygen abundance using the empirical and direct method. Stellar masses of galaxies are derived from the STARLIGHT code. We also derive star formation rates of galaxies based on $H{\alpha}$ emission line from the SDSS as well as far-ultraviolet (FUV) flux from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer GR6 data. Evolution of the luminosity-metallicity and mass-metallicity (M-Z) relations with redshift is observed. At a given luminosity and mass, galaxies at higher redshifts appear to be biased to low metallicities relative to the lower redshift counterparts. Furthermore, low mass galaxies show higher specific star formation rates (SSFRs) than more massive ones and galaxies at higher redshifts are biased to higher SSFRs compared to the lower redshift sample. By visual inspection of the SDSS images, we classify galaxy morphology into disturbed or undisturbed. In the M-Z relation, we find a hint that morphologically disturbed BCGs appear to exhibit low metallicities and high SSFRs compared to undisturbed counterparts. We suggest that our results support downsizing galaxy formation scenario and star formation histories of BCGs are closely related with their morphologies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.36-36
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• 2013

Globular clusters (GCs) are among the oldest stellar objects in the universe and provide valuable constraints on many aspects of galaxy evolution. GC systems typically exhibit bimodal color distributions the phenomenon of which has been a major topic in the area of GC research. GC color bimodality established a paradigm where scenarios to explain its origin require two GC groups with different formation origins. The GC division, asserted mainly by photometric color bimodality so far, has been viewed as the presence of two distinct metallicity subgroups within individual galaxies. In this study, we make use of spectroscopy of GC systems associated with two giant galaxies, M31 (the Andromeda) and M87 (NGC 4486), to investigate the GC bimodality and the underlying metallicity distributions. Recent spectroscopy on the globular cluster (GC) system of M31 with unprecedented precision witnessed a clear bimodality in absorption-line index distributions of old GCs. Given that spectroscopy is a more detailed probe into stellar population than photometry; the discovery of index bimodality may point to the very existence of dual GC populations. However, here we show that the observed spectroscopic dichotomy of M31 GCs emerges due to the nonlinear nature of metallicity-to-index conversion and thus one does not necessarily have to invoke two separate GC subsystems. We present spectra of 130 old globular clusters (GCs) associated with the Virgo giant elliptical galaxy M87, obtained using the Multi-Object Spectrography (MOS) mode of Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) on the Subaru telescope. M87 GCs with reliable metallicity measurements exhibit significant inflection along the color-metallicity relations, through which observed color bimodality is reproduced from a broad, unimodal metallicity distribution. Our findings lend further support to this new interpretation of the GC color bimodality, which could change much of the current thought on the formation of GC systems and their host galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2013

We utilize Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 spectroscopic data of ~380 star forming galaxies in the Virgo cluster to investigate their chemical properties depending on the environments. The chemical evolution of galaxies is linked to their star formation histories as well as to the gas interchange in different environments. We derived star formation rate (SFR) and gaseous metallicity (e.g., oxygen abundance) of star forming galaxies. Combining with GALEX ultraviolet photometry and ALFALFA HI 21 cm data, we examine the relations between SFRs, metallicity, and HI deficiency of galaxies in various regions of the Virgo cluster. We also quantify the degree of ram pressure around galaxy using the ROSAT X-ray surface brightness map. We discuss environmental effects on the chemical properties and evolution of star forming galaxies.