• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.447-449
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• 2015

Although the link between activity in the nuclei of galaxy and galactic mergers has been under scrutiny for several years, it is still unclear to what extent and for which populations of active galaxies merger-triggered activity is relevant. The environments of AGN allow an indirect probe of the past merger history and future merger probability of these systems, suffering less from sensitivity issues when extended to higher redshifts than traditional morphological studies of AGN host galaxies. Here we present results from our investigation of the environment of radio selected sources out to a redshift z=2. We employ the first data release J-band catalog of the new near-IR Infrared Medium-Deep Survey (IMS), 1.4 GHz radio data from the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-cm (FIRST) survey and a deep dedicated VLA survey of the VIMOS field, covering a combined total of 20 sq. degrees. At a flux limit of the combined radio catalog of 0.1 mJy, we probe over 8 orders of magnitude of radio luminosity. Using the second closest neighbor density parameters, we test whether active galaxies inhabit denser environments. We find evidence for a sub-population of radio-selected AGN that reside in significantly overdense environments at small scales, although we do not find significant overdensities for the bulk of our sample. We show that radio-AGN in the most underdense environments have vigorous ongoing star formation. We interpret these results in terms of the triggering and fuelling mechanism of radio-AGN.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.36.3-36.3
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• 2019

Feedback process is one of the most important topics in the study of AGNs since it plays a key role in linking the SMBHs and their host galaxies. In order to further understand the co-evolution of SMBHs and their host galaxies, we probe the feedback process in local type-2 AGNs with a series of integral-field-spectroscopy observations. In the first part of my talk, I will introduce our GMOS observations of luminous type-2 AGNs at z < 0.1, which are selected using the integrated [O III] kinematics. Based on the dedicated emission-line diagnostics and kinematic studies, we identify the signatures of AGN-driven outflows and quantify the outflow size in the targets with extreme [O III] kinematics. For the targets without extreme [O III] kinematics, we find the presence of weak AGN-driven outflows, which are indicated by the significant differences between the kinematics of gas and stars. Then, I will present our recent study of 40 type-2 AGNs based on the SNIFS IFU. By comparing the radial profile of velocity dispersion of gas and stars, we measure the size of AGN-driven outflows in these targets and extend the outflow size-AGN luminosity relation in our previous GMOS studies. We also discuss the feedback effect of AGN-driven outflows by connecting the outflow velocity and host galaxy properties. These results highlight the importance of spatially-resolved observation in investigating gas kinematics and identifying the signatures of AGN-driven outflows.

• 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.56 no.1
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• pp.59-73
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• 2023

The second generation of stars in the globular clusters (GCs) of the Milky Way (MW) exhibit unusually high N, Na, or Al, compared to typical Galactic halo stars at similar metallicities. The halo field stars enhanced with such elements are believed to have originated in disrupted GCs or escaped from existing GCs. We identify such stars in the metallicity range -3.0 < [Fe/H] < 0.0 from a sample of ~36,800 giant stars observed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope survey, and present their dynamical properties. The N-rich population (NRP) and N-normal population (NNP) among our giant sample do not exhibit similarities in either in their metallicity distribution function (MDF) or dynamical properties. We find that, even though the MDF of the NRP looks similar to that of the MW's GCs in the range of [Fe/H] < -1.0, our analysis of the dynamical properties does not indicate similarities between them in the same metallicity range, implying that the escaped members from existing GCs may account for a small fraction of our N-rich stars, or the orbits of the present GCs have been altered by the dynamical friction of the MW. We also find a significant increase in the fraction of N-rich stars in the halo field in the very metal-poor (VMP; [Fe/H] < -2.0) regime, comprising up to ~20% of the fraction of the N-rich stars below [Fe/H] = -2.5, hinting that partially or fully destroyed VMP GCs may have in some degree contributed to the Galactic halo. A more detailed dynamical analysis of the NRP reveals that our sample of N-rich stars do not share a single common origin. Although a substantial fraction of the N-rich stars seem to originate from the GCs formed in situ, more than 60% of them are not associated with those of typical Galactic populations, but probably have extragalactic origins associated with Gaia Sausage/Enceladus, Sequoia, and Sagittarius dwarf galaxies, as well as with presently unrecognized progenitors.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.54.3-54.3
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• 2015

To probe the star formation in local and early Universe, the NISS with a capability of imaging spectroscopy in the near-infrared is being developed by KASI. The main scientific targets are nearby galaxies, galaxy clusters, star-forming regions and low background regions. The off-axis optical design of the NISS with 15cm aperture was optimized to obtain a wide field of view (FoV) of $2deg.{\times}2deg.$ as well as a wide spectral coverage from 0.9 to $3.8{\mu}m$. The opto-mechanical structure was designed to be safe enough to endure in both the launching condition and the space environment. The dewar will operate $1k{\times}1k$ infrared sensor at 80K stage. The NISS will be launched in 2017 and explore the large areal near-infrared sky up to $200deg.^2$ in order to get both spatial and spectral information for astronomical objects. As an extension of the NISS, KASI is planning to participate in a new small space mission together with NASA. The promising candidate, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) is an all-sky survey satellite designed to reveal the origin of the Universe and water in the planetary systems and to explore the evolution of galaxies. Though the survey concept is similar to that of the NISS, the SPHEREx will perform the first near-infrared all-sky imaging spectroscopic survey with the wider spectral range from 0.7 to $5{\mu}m$ and the wider FoV of $3.5deg.{\times}7deg.$ Here, we report the current status of the NISS and introduce new mission for the near-infrared imaging spectroscopic survey.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.68.1-68.1
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• 2013

Infrared Medium-Deep Survey is a near-infrared imaging survey geared toward understanding the formation and the evolution of quasars and galaxies at high redshift, and studying transient and time-variable objects such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and young stellar objects. The survey uses a multi-tier structure, with deep imaging survey of 100 $deg^2$ using UKIRT to the depth of 23 AB mag, and a shallower imaging of interesting sources using the CQUEAN camera on the 2.1m telescope at McDonald observatory. This talk will give an overview of the survey strategy, the instrument development, and science highlights. The science highlights will include the discovery of high redshift quasars, high redshift galaxy clusters, GRBs, and other interesting sources. At the end of the talk, we will also present the future prospects of our study.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.81-81
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• 2012

Since the ultraviolet (UV) flux of an integrated population is a good tracer of recent star formation activities, UV observations provide an important constraint on star formation history (SFH) in galaxies. We present UV color-magnitude relations (CMRs) of early-type dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster, based on Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) UV data and the Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog (EVCC, Kim, S. in prep.). The EVCC covers an area 5.4 times larger (750 deg2) than the footprint of the classical Virgo cluster catalog by Binggeli and collaborators. We secure 1304 galaxies as members of the Virgo cluster and 526 galaxies of them are new objects not contained in the VCC. Morphological classification of galaxies in the EVCC is based on the optical image ("Primary Classification") and spectral feature ("Secondary Classification") of the SDSS data. We find that dwarf lenticular galaxies (dS0s) show a surprisingly distinct and tight locus separated from that of ordinary dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs), which is not clearly seen in previous CMRs. The dS0s in UV CMRs follow a steeper sequence than dEs and show bluer UV-optical color at a given magnitude. Most early type dwarf galaxies with blue UV colors (FUV-r < 6 and NUV-r < 4) are identified as those showing spectroscopic hints of recent or ongoing star formation activities. We explore the observed CMRs with population models of a luminosity-dependent delayed exponential star formation history. The observed CMR of dS0s is well matched with models with relatively long delayed star formation. Our results suggest that dS0s are most likely transitional objects at the stage of subsequent transformation of late-type progenitors to ordinary red dEs in the cluster environment. In any case, UV photometry provides a powerful tool to disentangle the diverse subpopulations of early-type dwarf galaxies and uncover their evolutionary histories.