• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.59.1-59.1
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• 2013

Type Ia supernovae (SNe) are providing the most conclusive evidence for accelerating universe with dark energy in observational cosmology. In these investigations, look-back time evolution of SNe luminosity is regarded as negligible on the basic assumption. However, several recent works present some systematic differences among hosts which have different characteristics of stellar population. For more direct investigation, we are proceeding with our YONSEI (YOnsei Nearby Supernovae Evolution Investigation) project. Only early-type hosts in our catalogue were chosen in order to estimate the luminosity-weighted mean age and metallicity directly using Single Stellar Population (SSP) models and ignore the effect from the dust extinction. Observations using low-resolution spectrographs are still in progress at Las Campanas Observatory with 2.5m telescope and at McDonald Observatory with 2.7m telescope. We have thus far obtained spectra for 30 early-type hosts. After weak emission line correction, Lick/IDS absorption-line indices are measured and YEPS spectroscopic evolution model was applied to determine mean population ages and metallicities. Our preliminary results show that SNe Ia hosted in older galaxies seem to be brighter at 1.4 - 3 sigma levels, however, more observations and analyses are still needed to confirm this correlation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.30.1-30.1
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• 2017

In the hope to detect low-surface brightness features (${\mu}_{r^{\prime}}{\sim}27\;mag\;arcsec^{-2}$), we carried out KASI-Yonsei Deep Imaging Survey for Clusters (KYDISC) targeting 14 local clusters at 0.016 < z < 0.145 using Magellan/IMACS telescope and CFHT/MegaCam. Out of 1450 cluster galaxies, 18% of galaxies show the signatures of galaxy mergers. We explore merger-driven changes from various point-of-view. We first examine color-magnitude relations, and find that galaxies related to recent mergers are populated more on blue color than their counterparts. Besides, we find the extremely low frequency of mergers on low-mass red-sequence galaxies, suggesting a migration of red galaxies into the green-valley region through merger-driven star-formation. We also study the mass-size relation of our sample, finding a larger galaxy size in galaxies related to recent mergers. Our results suggest that mergers can simultaneously change properties of galaxies, making outliers on galactic scaling relations.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.101-105
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• 2010

Taking the great advantage of Subaru's wide field coverage both in the optical and in the near infrared, we have been providing panoramic views of distant clusters and their surrounding environments over the wide redshift range of 0:4 < z < 3. From our unique data sets, a consistent picture has been emerging that the star forming activity is once enhanced and then truncated in galaxy groups in the outskirts of clusters during the course of cluster assembly at z < 1. Such activity is shifted into cluster cores as we go further back in time to z ~ 1.5. At z = 2 - 2.5, we begin to enter the epoch when massive galaxies are actually forming in the cluster core. And by z ~ 3, we eventually go beyond the major epoch of massive galaxy formation. It is likely that the environmental dependence of star forming activity is at least partly due to the external environmental effects such as galaxy-galaxy interaction in medium density regions at z < 1, while the intrinsic effect of galaxy formation bias overtakes the external effect at higher redshifts, resulting in a large star formation activity in the cluster center.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.33.1-33.1
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• 2013

Galaxies undergo various processes in the cluster environment, which could affect their evolution. In particular, ram pressure due to intracluster medium (ICM) can effectively remove HI gas, which is a relatively diffuse form of interstellar medium (ISM). On the other hand, molecular gas is not expected to get easily stripped as atomic gas since it is denser and sitting well within the stellar disk in a deeper potential well. However, cluster galaxies are found to be redder and more passive in star formation activity compared to their field counterpart. This implies that molecular gas may also get affected somehow in dense environments. In this work, we investigate molecular gas properties of a sample of galaxies undergoing HI stripping due to the ICM. We present the 12/13 CO (2-1) data of four spiral galaxies in the Virgo cluster at different ram pressure stripping stages, obtained using the Sub Millimeter Array (SMA). CO morphology of the sample appears to be highly asymmetric and disturbed. Using the ratio of different lines, we probe the molecular gas temperature in different regions. We find higher gas temperature than the range normally found among field galaxies. We discuss how these distinct molecular gas properties may affect star formation and hence the evolution of the cluster galaxy population.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.85.1-85.1
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• 2012

Energetic outflow from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) may play a critical role in galaxy evolution. We present a velocity diagnostics for detecting gas outflow in the narrow-line region of Type-2 AGNs using line-of-sight velocity offset of the [O III]${\lambda}5007$ and $H{\alpha}$ emission lines with respect to the systemic velocity of stars in host galaxies. We apply the diagnostics to nearby galaxies at 0.02 < z < 0.05: 3775 AGN-host and 907 star-forming galaxies as a comparison sample, which are selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. After obtaining a best-fit stellar population model for the continuum and a systemic velocity based on stellar lines, we subtract stellar component to measure velocity offsets of each emission line. We find a sample of 169 AGN-host galaxies with outflow signatures, displaying a larger velocity shift of [O III] than that of $H{\alpha}$, as expected in a decelerating outflow model. We find that the offset velocity of [O III] increases with Eddington ratio, suggesting that gas outflow depends on the energetics of AGN.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.77.3-77.3
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• 2019

Aims. The evolution of scaling relations between SMBHs and their host galaxies becomes uncertain at high redshifts. The HULQ project proposes to use gravitational lensing to measure the masses of QSO host galaxies, an otherwise difficult goal. SMBH masses of QSOs are relatively easy to determine using either reverberation mapping or the single-epoch method. These measurements, if made for a substantial number of QSOs at various redshifts, will allow us to study the co-evolution of SMBHs and their host galaxies. To determine the feasibility of this study, we present how to estimate the number of sources lensed by QSO hosts, i.e. the number of deflector QSO host galaxies (hereafter QSO lenses). Method and results. Using SMBH masses measured from SDSS DR14 spectra, and the M_BH - Sigma relation, the Einstein radii are calculated as a function of source redshift, assuming singular isothermal sphere mass distributions. Using QSOs and galaxies as sources, the probability of a QSO host galaxy being a QSO lens is calculated, depending on the limiting magnitude. The expected numbers of QSO lenses are estimated for ongoing and future wide-imaging surveys, and additional factors that may affect these numbers are discussed.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.39.3-39.3
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• 2019

Ram pressure stripping due to the intracluster medium (ICM) is an important environmental process, which causes star formation quenching by effectively removing cold interstellar gas from galaxies in dense environments. The evidence of diffuse atomic gas stripping has been reported in several HI imaging studies. However, it is still under debate whether molecular gas (i.e., a more direct ingredient for star formation) can be also affected and/or stripped by ram pressure. The goal of this thesis is to understand the impact of ram pressure on the molecular gas content of cluster galaxies and hence star formation activity. To achieve this, we conducted a series of detailed studies on the molecular gas properties of three Virgo spiral galaxies with clear signs of active HI gas stripping (NGC 4330, NGC 4402, and NGC 4522) based on high-resolution CO data obtained from the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). As a result, we find the evidence that the molecular gas disk also gets affected by ram pressure in similar ways as HI even well inside of the stellar disk. In addition, we detected extraplanar 13CO clumps in one of the sample, which is the first case ever reported in ram pressure stripped galaxies. By analyzing multi-wavelength data (e.g., Hα, UV, HI, and CO), we discuss detailed processes of how ram pressure affects star formation activities and hence evolution of cluster galaxies. We also discuss the origin of extraplanar 13CO, and how ram pressure can potentially contribute to the chemical evolution of the ICM.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.72.1-72.1
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• 2021

Galaxy mergers are known to have been one of the main drivers in galaxy evolution in a wide range of environments. However, in galaxy clusters, high-speed encounters have been believed to undermine the role of mergers as a driver in galaxy evolution. Nonetheless, a high fraction (~38% in Sheen et al. 2012 and ~20% in Oh et al. 2018) of galaxies with post-merging features have been reported in deep (>~28 mag/arcsec2) optical surveys of cluster galaxies. The authors argue that these galaxies could have merged outside of the cluster and, later, fallen into the cluster, sustaining their long-lasting post-merging features. On the other hand, when galaxy clusters interact, galaxy orbits might be destabilized resulting in a higher galaxy merger rate. To test this idea, we measure the ongoing-merger fraction of galaxies in deep DECam mosaic data of seven Abell clusters (A754, A2399, A2670, A3558, A3574, A3659 and A3716) with a variety of dynamical states (0.016

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.69.2-69.2
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• 2011

The discovery of dark energy from Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) is based on the implicit assumption that the look-back time evolution of SN Ia luminosity, after light-curve corrections, would be negligible. A strong support for this assumption was the apparent insensitivity of SN Ia distances across the host galaxy morphologies. However, Hicken et al. 2009 (H09) shows a systematic difference in the Hubble residual (HR) of $0.144{\pm}0.070$ mag between the E-S0 and Scd/Sd/Irr galaxies, after light-curve corrections. If true, this indicates that the light-curve fitters used by the SN Ia community can not correct for the population age (and therefore the evolution) effect. In order to confirm this, we have combined nearby SN Ia samples and the first-year SDSS-II SN Survey. The SNANA package was used for analyzing SN Ia light-curve, both for the MLCS2k2 and SALT2 fitters. We find a systematic difference in the HR of $0.10-0.13{\pm}0.030$ mag between E-S0 and Scd/Sd/Irr galaxies, which is in agreement with the result of H09, but now at the 3-5 ${\sigma}$ level. Considering the significant difference in the mean age of stellar population between these morphological types, the difference in the HR reported here suggests that the evolution effect of SN Ia luminosity should be considered in the cosmological application of SN Ia data.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.36.2-36.2
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• 2012

The aim of this study was to explore the role of galaxy mergers on the formation and evolution of galaxies in galaxy clusters. For this purpose, u', g', r' deep optical imaging and multi-object spectroscopic observation were done for four rich Abell clusters at z ${\lesssim}$ 0.1 (A119, A2670, A3330, and A389) with a MOSAIC 2 CCD and Hydra spectrograph mounted on a Blanco 4-m telescope at CTIO. With the deep images, we found that about 25% of the bright red-sequence galaxies exhibited post-merger signatures in a cluster environment. This fraction was much higher than what was expected from the results of the field environment (-35%, van Dokkum 2005) and significantly low on-going merger fractions (about one-fifth of the field) appeared in the clusters currently. Taking advantage of the most up-to-date semi-analytic model, the results indicate that most of the post-merger galaxies may have carried over their merger features from their previous halo environment. All the brightest cluster galaxies in our cluster samples revealed faint structures in their halos as well as multiple nuclei in their centers seen in the deep optical images. We suggest that the mass of the BCGs increased mainly though major mergers at recent epochs based on their post-merger signatures and the large gaps in the total magnitudes between the BCGs and the second-rank BCGs. A UV bright tidal tail and tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG) candidates around the post-merger galaxy, NGC 4922, were discovered in the outskirts of the Coma cluster using the GALEX UV data. We did two-component stellar population modeling for the TDG candidates and the results indicate that they are an early form of dwarf galaxies frequently found around massive early-type galaxies in clusters. In conclusion, we suggest that the mergers of galaxies are an important driving force behind galaxy formation and evolution in cluster environments even until recent epochs.