• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.121-124
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• 2005

High resolution images of the nuclear regions of nearby galaxies show that nuclear spirals are preponderant in normal galaxies as well as in active galaxies. These nuclear spirals, especially the grand-design nuclear spirals are found to be formed by the gas flow driven by the bar. Hydrodynamical simulations exploring a wide range of parameter space show that the morphology of nuclear spirals depends not only on the inner dynamics but on the global dynamics resulting from the global mass distribution of galaxies. Thus, the nuclear morphology can be a diagnostic tool for the inner dynamics of galaxies when the global mass distribution is taken into account.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.29.1-29.1
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• 2015

We study the environmental dependence of the mass-size relation for the most massive early type galaxies (M > $10^{10.7}M_{\odot}$) in the redshift range 0.10~0.15. As a measure of the environment, galaxy number densities are measured by the $10^{th}$ nearest galaxies within 6500km/s from galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts. The sizes of galaxies are measured by non-parametric method. We find that galaxies more massive than $10^{11.1}M_{\odot}$ show the environmental dependence in the mass-size relation. The galaxies with M > $10^{11.1}M_{\odot}$ located in the densest, cluster like environment have larger sizes and extended surface brightness profiles than their counterparts located in a low dense environment. We also find that the environmental dependence of the mass-size relation is more significant for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) than non-BCGs. Our result can be explained with a hierarchical growth of the most massive galaxies through dissipation-less merger in dense environment.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.81.2-81.2
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• 2010

The origin of galactic angular momentum is commonly explained as a result of tidal torques of neighbouring protogalaxies on the forming galactic halo. In this context, the environment plays a preponderant role establishing the total angular momentum of present day galaxies. For the last four decades, most of the observational studies focused their attention on the spatial orientation of galaxies in filaments, groups or clusters, leaving behind the magnitude of the angular momentum. We have implemented a simple model to account for the spin of disk galaxies that allow us to obtain an estimate for any galaxy requiring a minimum of information. Applying this method to a sample of galaxies extracted from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we have been studying angular momentum distributions of galaxies in different environments. In this talk I will present some results for galaxies immersed in different environments, spanning three orders of magnitude in environmental density, galaxies having nearby companions and clustered galaxies.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.261-270
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• 2003

We have conducted a V-band CCD surface photometry of 68 disk galaxies to analyze the bulge morphology of nearby spirals. We classify bulges into four types according to their ellipticities and the misalignments between the major axis of the bulge and those of the disk and the bar: spherical, oblate, pseudo triaxial, and triaxial. We found that one third of the bulges are triaxial and they are preponderant in barred galaxies. The presence of the triaxial bulges in a significant fraction of unbarred galaxies as well as in barred galaxies might support the secular evolution hypothesis which postulates that the bar driven mass inflow leads to the formation of triaxial bulges and the destruction of bars when sufficient mass is accumulated in the central regions.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.77.1-77.1
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• 2011

The sizes of galaxies are correlated with their masses or luminosities, which is known as the 'mass-size relation' or 'luminosity-size relation'. Those relations show scatters in the sense that the sizes of galaxies range somewhat widely at given mass or luminosity, which is largely affected by the morphologies or colors of the sample galaxies. However, the scatters of the relations are still large even when the galaxy sample is limited to red early-type galaxies: at fixed mass or luminosity, the largest red early-type galaxies are larger than the smallest red early-type galaxies by a factor of 4 - 5. This is a progress report of a study on what determines the sizes of red early-type galaxies. We investigate how the sizes of red early-type galaxies depend on several quantities of them, such as color, color gradient, axis ratio, local number density and mass-to-light ratio. The physical implication of those preliminary results is discussed.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.465-467
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• 2015

We presents a study of interactions between galaxies in the low-redshift group known as the NGC 4065 group. Imaging data were taken using the 2.4 meter telescope at the Thai National Observatory (TNO) for B, V and $R_c$ broadband filters and [$S\small{II}$] and Red-continuum narrowband filters. There are 21 galaxies in our sample. The results show that most early type galaxies (ETGs) with equivalent width EW($H{\alpha}$) < $10{\AA}$ are gas-deficient galaxies, while late type galaxies (LTGs) show more EW($H{\alpha}$) and are bluer than the ETGs. This means that star formation activity in the LTGs could be triggered by tidal interactions between galaxy members due to dense environmental effects in the compact group.

• 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.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.36.1-36.1
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• 2018

Star formation activity of galaxies, along with color and morphology, show significant environmental dependence in local universe, where galaxies in dense environment tend to be more quiescent and redder. However, many studies show that such environmental dependence does not continue at higher redshifts beyond z~1. The question of how the environmental dependence of galactic properties have developed over time is crucial to understanding cosmic galactic evolution. By combining data from Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey(CFHTLS), Infrared Medium-Deep Survey(IMS), and other surveys, the photometric redshifts of galaxies in CFHTLS W2 field were estimated by fitting spectral energy distribution. The distribution of galaxies was mapped in redshift bins of 0.05 interval from 0.6 to 1.4. For each redshift bin, the number density was mapped. The galaxies in high density regions were grouped into clusters using friend-of-friend method. The color of galaxies were analyzed to study the correlation with redshift as well as environmental difference between field galaxies and cluster member galaxies.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2019

One day, a galaxy study suddenly came to me and became a friend of 40 years. The study of galaxies, which began with surface photometry of nearby galaxies, ended up in galaxy morphology through chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies. All that deviated from the study of galaxies was the study of the open clusters. So it seems to me that I devoted my entire life to the study of galaxies. The most memorable one is the observation at Sobaeksan Observatory. Even though the heavy snow fell, I climbed Sobaeksan to meet galaxies. Galaxies observed at Kiso Observatory, DAO, and BOAO are now beyond memory, but I still enjoy seeing them. There are many memories, but the biggest pleasure I've had in my galaxy studies is when I've encountered the galactic conformity between host and its satellite galaxies. Eureka! Now the night sky is changing from the object of study to the object of awe. I will share this joy.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.195-200
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• 2011

We have revisited the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey (ACSVCS), a Hubble Space Telescope program to obtain ACS/WFC g and z bands imaging for a sample of 100 early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. In this study, we examine 51 nucleated early-type galaxies in the ACSVCS in order to look into the relationship between the photometric and structural properties of stellar nuclei and their host galaxies. We morphologically dissect galaxies into five classes. We note that (1) the stellar nuclei of dwarf early-type galaxies (dS0, dE, and dE,N) are generally fainter and bluer with g > 18.95 and (g-z) < 1.40 compared to some brighter and redder counterparts of the ellipticals (E) and lenticular galaxies (S0), (2) the g-band half-light radii of stellar nuclei of all dwarf early-type galaxies (dS0, dE, and dE,N) are smaller than 20 pc and their average is about 4 pc, and (3) the colors of red stellar nuclei with (g - z) > 1.40 in bright ellipticals and lenticular galaxies are bluer than their host galaxies colors. We also show that most of the unusually "red" stellar nuclei with (g-z) > 1.54 in the ACSVCS are the central parts of bright ellipticals and lenticular galaxies. Furthermore, we present multi photometric band color - color plots that can be used to break the age-metallicity degeneracy particularly by inclusion of the thermally pulsing-asymptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) phases of stellar evolution in the stellar population models.