• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.69-70
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• 1996

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.37.3-38
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• 2020

Ever since thick disk was proposed to explain the vertical distribution of the Milky Way disk stars, its origin has been a recurrent question. We aim to answer this question by inspecting 19 disk galaxies with stellar mass greater than 10^10 solar mass in recent cosmological high-resolution (>34 pc) zoom-in simulations: Galactica and New Horizon. The thin and thick disks are reproduced by the simulations with scale heights and luminosity ratios that are in reasonable agreement with observations. When we spatially classify the disk stars into thin and thick disks by their heights from the galactic plane, the "thick" disk stars are older, less metal-rich, kinematically hotter, and higher in accreted star fraction than the "thin" disk counterparts. However, we found that the the thick disk stars were spatially and kinematically thinner when they were born. Indeed, a large fraction of thick disk stars was born near the galactic plane at earlier times and get heated with time, eventually occupying high altitudes and exhibiting different population properties compared to the thin-disk stars. In conclusion, from our simulations, the thin and thick disk components are not entirely distinct at birth, but rather a result of the time evolution of the stars born in the main disk of the galaxy. (excerpted from the abstract of the upcoming paper submitted to Astrophysical Journal: Park, M.-J., Yi, S.K. et al. 2020)

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.59-65
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• 2011

A small number of active galactic nuclei are known to exhibit prominent double peak emission profiles that are well-fitted by a relativistic accretion disk model. We develop a Monte Carlo code to compute the linear polarization of a double peaked broad emission line arising from Thomson scattering. A Keplerian accretion disk is adopted for the double peak emission line region and the geometry is assumed to be Schwarzschild. Far from the accretion disk where flat Minkowski geometry is appropriate, we place an azimuthally symmetric scattering region in the shape of a spherical shell sliced with ${\Delta}{\mu}=0.1$. Adopting a Monte Carlo method we generate line photons in the accretion disk in arbitrary directions in the local rest frame and follow the geodesic paths of the photons until they hit the scattering region. The profile of the polarized flux is mainly determined by the relative location of the scattering region with respect to the emission source. When the scattering region is in the polar direction, the degree of linear polarization also shows a double peak structure. Under favorable conditions we show that up to 0.6% linear polarization may be obtained. We conclude that spectropolarimetry can be a powerful probe to reveal much information regarding the accretion disk geometry of these active galactic nuclei.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.457-459
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• 2015

Observations show that the accretion flows in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) probably have a two-component structure with an inner hot, optically thin, advection dominated accretion flow (ADAF) and an outer truncated cool, optically thick accretion disk. As shown by Taam et al. (2012), within the framework of the disk evaporation model, the truncation radius as a function of mass accretion rate is strongly affected by including the magnetic field. We define the parameter ${\beta}$ as $p_m=B^2/8{\pi}=(1-{\beta})p_{tot}$, (where $p_{tot}=p_{gas}+p_m$, $p_{gas}$ is gas pressure and $p_m$ is magnetic pressure) to describe the strength of the magnetic field in accretion flows. It is found that an increase of the magnetic field (decreasing the value of ${\beta}$) results in a smaller truncation radius for the accretion disk. We calculate the emergent spectrum of an inner ADAF + an outer truncated accretion disk around a supermassive black hole by considering the effects of the magnetic field on the truncation radius of the accretion disk. By comparing with observations, we found that a weaker magnetic field (corresponding to a bigger value of ${\beta}$) is required to match the observed correlation between $L_{2-10keV}/L_{Edd}$ and the bolometric correction $k_{2-10keV}$, which is consistent with the physics of the accretion flow with a low mass accretion rate around a black hole.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.63.1-63.1
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• 2014

The galaxy disk warp is a common phenomenon, yet their properties and formation mechanism(s) are still unclear. Here, we introduce a new automatic measurement method for the warp properties of stellar disks in nearby edge-on galaxies, including warp's angle, shape, and asymmetry. We obtain isophotal maps of edge-on galaxies and express each of isophote contours in polar coordinates (${\Phi}$, R) centered on the galaxy centers. Two peaks in the ${\Phi}$-R diagram correspond to the outermost tips of each isophote. The locations of peaks, in turn, inform us of the misalignment between their inner and outer galactic planes, i.e., the warp. We apply this method to SDSS Stripe 82 co-added data and discuss its reliability and validity. Based on the measurement of warp properties, we also investigate their correlations with both intrinsic and environmental properties of warped galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.55.2-55.2
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• 2014

Role of environments is one of today's most widely discussed and debated topic in the field of extra-galactic astronomy. Extreme morphology-density relations found in low-mass galaxies are considered to be the result of an effective role played by environment in the evolution of these galaxies. I will present the results from our dedicated study of early-type dwarf galaxies (dEs) in different environments using imaging and spectroscopic data. We find that Virgo cluster dEs have a variety of structural and kinematic properties. A significant fraction of dEs possesses disk features, such as spiral arm and bar, while a central nucleus seems to be universal in these low mass galaxies. We also find that a majority of dEs are fast rotator and their rotation curves are much steeper than that of spiral galaxies of similar mass. Finally I will discuss how the different environmental mechanisms, i.e., gas-stripping or tidal interaction, can contribute to form heterogeneous dEs in Virgo cluster.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.47.1-47.1
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• 2013

We present structural parameters of galaxies in the Extended Viro Cluster Catalog (EVCC), new catalog of galaxies in the Viro cluster using homogeneous Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Date Release 7 (DR7) data. The EVCC covers more extended region of the Viro cluster than of the Virgo Cluster Catalog (VCC) and presents updated morphologies of galaxies using multi-band images and spectral features. We obtain the surface brightness profiles of galaxies using ellipse task in IRAF. Based on the analysis of surface brightness profile we construct a catalog of various structural parameters of galaxies, i.e. central surface brightness, effective radius, sersic index, effective surface brightness, and mean effective surface brightness. Taking advantage of these structural parameters in various parameter spaces, we refine criteria of dividing giant elliptical and dwarf elliptical galaxies. In addition, we found that bulge dominated galaxies have larger sersic index and brighter central surface brightness than disk dominated galaxies. At fixed magnitude, dwarf elliptical galaxies dwarf lenticular galaxies, and dwarf irregular low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies show larger effective radii than giant elliptical galaxies, giant lenticular galaxies, and irregular high surface brightness (HSB) galaxies, respectively. Dwarf elliptical galaxies and dwarf irregular LSB galaxies occupy the similar structural parameter spaces. We suggest that giant elliptical galaxies and dwarf elliptical galaxies may have different origin.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.31.3-32
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• 2016

We present the radial variations of the scale heights and the vertical velocity dispersions in a sample of nearby edge-on galaxies using BIMA/CARMA $^{12}CO$ ($J=1{\rightarrow}0$), VLA/EVLA HI, and Spitzer $3.6{\mu}m$ data. Both the disk thicknesses and the velocity dispersions of gas and stars vary with radius, contrary to assumptions of previous studies. We investigate how the interstellar gas pressure and the gravitational instability parameter differ from values derived assuming constant velocity dispersions and scale heights. Using the measurement of the disk thicknesses and the derived radial profiles of gas and stars, we estimate the corresponding volume densities. The gravitational instability parameter Q follows a fairly uniform profile with radius and is ${\geq}1$ across the star-forming disk. The star formation law has a slope that is significantly different from those found in more face-on galaxy studies. The midplane gas pressure appears to roughly hold a power-law correlation with the midplane volume density ratio (${\rho}_{H2}/{\rho}_{HI}$).

• 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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.45.2-45.2
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• 2013

We studied recent evolution of M31 and M33 with star-forming regions and hot massive stars. We use GALEX far-UV and near-UV imaging to detect the star-forming regions and trace the recent star formation across the entire disk of galaxies. The GALEX imaging, combining deep sensitivity and entire coverage of these galaxies, provides a complete picture of the recent star formation in M31 and M33, and its variation with environment throughout these galaxies. We also show results from recent extensive surveys in M31 and M33 with Hubble Space Telescope multi-wavelength data including UV filters, which imaged several regions at a linear resolution of less than half a pc in these galaxies. Both datasets allow us to study the hierarchical structure of star formation: the youngest stellar groups are the most compact, and are often arranged withing broader, sparser structures. The derived recent star-formation rates are rather similar for the two galaxies, when scaled for the respective areas.