• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.125-128
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• 2005

In this paper, we argue that the gigahertz peaked spectrum (GPS) quasars are special blazars, blazars in dense and dusty gas enviornment. The ROSAT detection rate of GPS quasars is similar to that of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs), suggesting that the relativistic jets in GPS quasars are oriented at small angle to the line of sight. Due to strong inverse Compton scattering off infrared photons from dense and dusty nuclear interstellar media in GPS quasars, most of them may have significant soft gamma-ray and X-ray emission, which is consistent with ASCA X-ray observations. Because Compton cooling in GPS quasars is stronger than that in FSRQs, synchrotron emission in GPS quasars may less dominate over thermal emission of the accretion disk and hot dust, hence most GPS quasars show low optical polarization and small variability, consistent with observations. We suggest that it is the significant radio emission of electron/positron pairs produced by the interaction of gamma-rays with the dense gas and dust grains in GPS quasars that makes GPS quasars show steep radio spectra, low radio polarization, and relatively faint VLBI/VLBA cores. Whether GPS quasars are special blazars can be tested by gamma-ray observations with GLAST in the near future, with the detection rate of GPS quasars being similar to that of FSRQs.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2007

Quasars at cosmological distances can be gravitationally lensed by galaxies into two or more images. The probability of this lensing and the angular separation between the images depend on the geometry and the expansion history of the universe as well as the lensing galaxies. The time delay between lensed images is also a direct indicator of the size of the universe. I review these cosmological applications of multiple-image gravitationally lensed quasars to determine or constrain the cosmological parameters.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.131-138
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• 2022

We report the discovery of four quasars with M₁₄₅₀ ≳ -25.0 mag at z ~ 5 and supermassive black hole mass measurement for one of the quasars. They were selected as promising high-redshift quasar candidates via deep learning and Bayesian information criterion, which are expected to be effective in discriminating quasars from the late-type stars and high-redshift galaxies. The candidates were observed by the Double Spectrograph on the Palomar 200-inch Hale Telescope. They show clear Lyα breaks at about 7000-8000 Å, indicating they are quasars at 4.7 < z < 5.6. For HSC J233107-001014, we measure the mass of its supermassive black hole (SMBH) using its C _IV λ1549 emission line. The SMBH mass and Eddington ratio of the quasar are found to be ~10⁸ M_⊙ and ~0.6, respectively. This suggests that this quasar possibly harbors a fast growing SMBH near the Eddington limit despite its faintness (L_Bol < 10⁴⁶ erg s^-1). Our 100% quasar identification rate supports high efficiency of our deep learning and Bayesian information criterion selection method, which can be applied to future surveys to increase high-redshift quasar sample.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.443-445
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• 2015

We provide results of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic observations of 83 nearby (0.002< z <0.48) and bright (K <14 mag) type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). For the observations, we used the Infrared Camera (IRC) on AKARI allowing us to obtain the spectrum in the rarely studied spectral range of $2.5-5.0{\mu}m$. The $2.5-5.0{\mu}m$ spectral region suffers less dust extinction than ultra violet (UV) or optical wavelength ranges, and contains several important emission lines such as $Br{\beta}$ ($2.63{\mu}m$), $Br{\alpha}$ ($4.05{\mu}m$), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH; $3.3{\mu}m$). The sample is selected from the bright quasar surveys of Palomar Green and SNUQSO, and AGNs with black hole (BH) masses estimated from reverberation mapping method. We measure the Brackett line properties for 11 AGNs, which enable us to derive BH mass estimators and investigate circum-nuclear environments. Moreover, we perform spectral modeling to fit the hot and warm dust components by adding photometric data from SDSS, 2MASS, WISE, and ISO to the AKARI spectra, and estimate hot and warm dust temperatures of ~1100K and ~220 K, respectively.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.125-126
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• 1996

Beijing-Arizona-Taipei-Connecticut (BATC) survey is a long term project to map the spectral energy distribution of various objects using 15 intermediate band filters and aims to cover about 450 sq degrees of northern sky. The SED information, combined with image structure information, is used to classify objects into several stellar and galaxy categories as well as QSO candidates. In this paper, we present a preliminary setup of robust data reduction procedure recently developed at NCU and also briefly discuss general classification scheme: redshift estimate, and automatic detection of variable objects.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.7-17
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• 2012

Y-band is a broad passband that is centered at ~1 ${\mu}m$. It is becoming a new, popular window for extragalactic study especially for observations of red objects thanks to recent CCD technology developments. In order to better understand the general characteristics of objects in Y-band, and to investigate the promise of Y-band observations with small telescopes, we carried out imaging observations of several extragalactic fields, brown dwarfs, and high redshift quasars with Y-band filter at the Mt. Lemmon Optical Astronomy Observatory and the Maidanak observatory. From our observations, we constrain the bright end of the galaxy and the stellar number counts in Y-band. We also test the usefulness of high redshift quasar (z >6) selection via i - z - Y color-color diagram, to demonstrate that the i - z - Y color-color diagram is effective for the selection of high redshift quasars even with a conventional optical CCD camera installed at a 1-m class telescope.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.367-373
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• 2012

The first all-sky mid-/far-infrared survey by IRAS in the 1980s, has been followed by only two more, by AKARI, from 2006, and WISE in 2010. I discuss some features of the WISE survey, and highlight some key results from early extragalactic observations that have been made by the science team during the operation of the telescope, and the post-operation proprietary period during which the public release data products were being generated. The efficient survey strategy and very high-data rate from WISE produced a catalogue of 530 million objects that was released to the public in March 2012. The WISE survey strategy naturally provided the deepest coverage at the ecliptic poles, where matched comparison fields were obtained using Spitzer, and where AKARI also observed deep fields. I describe some of the follow-up work that has been carried out based on the WISE survey, and the prospects for enhancing the WISE data by combining the AKARI survey results are also discussed. While the all-sky AKARI survey is less deep than the WISE catalogue, and is still being worked on by the AKARI science team, it includes a larger number of bands, extends to longer wavelengths, and in particular has very complementary band passes to WISE in the mid-infrared waveband, which will provide enhanced spectral information for relatively bright targets.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.37-57
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• 2022

Using I-band images of 35 nearby (z < 0.1) type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) obtained with Hubble Space Telescope, selected from the 70-month Swift-BAT X-ray source catalog, we investigate the photometric properties of the host galaxies. With a careful treatment of the point-spread function (PSF) model and imaging decomposition, we robustly measure the I-band brightness and the effective radius of bulges in our sample. Along with black hole (BH) mass estimates from single-epoch spectroscopic data, we present the relation between BH mass and I-band bulge luminosity (M_BH-M_I,bul relation) of our sample AGNs. We find that our sample lies offset from the M_BH-M_I,bul relation of inactive galaxies by 0.4 dex, i.e., at a given bulge luminosity, the BH mass of our sample is systematically smaller than that of inactive galaxies. We also demonstrate that the zero point offset in the M_BH-M_I,bul relation with respect to inactive galaxies is correlated with the Eddington ratio. Based on the Kormendy relation, we find that the mean surface brightness of ellipticals and classical bulges in our sample is comparable to that of normal galaxies, revealing that bulge brightness is not enhanced in our sample. As a result, we conclude that the deviation in the M_BH-M_I,bul relation from inactive galaxies is possibly because the scaling factor in the virial BH mass estimator depends on the Eddington ratio.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.97-103
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• 2003

We now have more than 70 multiple image gravitational lens systems. Since gravitational lensing occurs through gravitational distortions in cosmic space, cosmological informations can be extracted from multiple image systems. Specifically, Hubble constant can be determined by the time delay mea-surement, curvature of the universe can be measured by the distribution of image separations in lens systems, and limits on matter density and cosmological constant can be set by the statistics of gravitationallens systems. Uncertainties, however, still exist in various steps, and results may be taken with some caution. Larger systematic survey and better understanding of galaxy properties would definitely help.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2023

The main goal of the Korean VLBI Network Calibrator Survey (KVNCS) is to expand the VLBI calibrators catalog for KVN, KaVA (KVN and VERA Array), EAVN (East-Asian VLBI Network), and other extended regions. The second KVNCS (KVNCS2) aimed to detect VLBI fringes of new candidates for calibrators in the K band. Out of the 1533 sources whose single-dish flux density in the K band was measured with KVN telescopes (Lee et al. 2017), 556 sources were observed with KVN in the K band. KVNCS2 confirmed the detection of VLBI fringes of 424 calibrator candidates over a single baseline. All detected sources had a high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of >25. Finally, KVNCS2 confirmed 347 new candidates as VLBI calibrators in the K band, resulting in a 5% increase in the sky coverage compared to previous studies. The spatial distribution was quasi-uniform across the observable region (Dec. > -32.5°). In addition, the possibility as calibrator candidates for the detected sources was checked, using an analysis of the flux-flux relationship. Ultimately, the KVNCS catalog will not only become the VLBI calibrator list but is also useful as a database of compact radio sources for astronomical studies.