• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.177-193
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• 2011

We present a photometric study of five open clusters (Czernik 5, Alessi 53, Berkeley 49, Berkeley 84, and Pfleiderer 3) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The position and size of these clusters are determined using the radial number density profiles of the stars, and the member stars of the clusters are selected using the proper motion data in the literature. We estimate the reddening, distance and age of the clusters based on the isochrone fitting in the color-magnitude diagram. The foreground reddenings for these clusters are estimated to be E(B - V ) = 0.71 - 1.55 mag. The distances to these clusters are derived to be 2.0 - 4.4 kpc, and their distances from the Galactic center range from 7.57 kpc to 12.35 kpc. Their ages are in the range from 250 Myr to 1 Gyr. Berkeley 49 and Berkeley 84 are located in the Orion spur, Czernik 5 is in the Perseus arm, and Pfleiderer 3 and Alessi 53 are located beyond the Perseus arm.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.109-122
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• 2016

[Fe II] emission lines are prominent in the infrared (IR) and important as diagnostic tools for radiative atomic shocks. We investigate the emission characteristics of [Fe II] lines using a shock code developed by Raymond (1979) with updated atomic parameters. We first review general characteristics of the IR [Fe II] emission lines from shocked gas, and derive their fluxes as a function of shock speed and ambient density. We have compiled available IR [Fe II] line observations of interstellar shocks and compare them to the ratios predicted from our model. The sample includes both young and old supernova remnants in the Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud and several Herbig-Haro objects. We find that the observed ratios of the IR [Fe II] lines generally fall on our grid of shock models, but the ratios of some mid-IR lines, e.g., [Fe II] 35.35 µm/[Fe II] 25.99 µm, [Fe II] 5.340 µm/[Fe II] 25.99 µm, and [Fe II] 5.340 µm/[Fe II] 17.94 µm, are significantly offset from our model grid. We discuss possible explanations and conclude that while uncertainties in the shock modeling and the observations certainly exist, the uncertainty in atomic rates appears to be the major source of discrepancy.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.605-609
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• 2004

We present a set of high-resolution 3D MHD simulations exploring the evolution of light, supersonic jets in cluster environments. We model sets of high- and low-Mach jets entering both uniform surroundings and King-type atmospheres and propagating distances more than 100 times the initial jet radius. Through complimentary analyses of synthetic observations and energy flow, we explore the detailed interactions between these jets and their environments. We find that jet cocoon morphology is strongly influenced by the structure of the ambient medium. Jets moving into uniform atmospheres have more pronounced backflow than their non-uniform counterparts, and this difference is clearly reflected by morphological differences in the synthetic observations. Additionally, synthetic observations illustrate differences in the appearances of terminal hotspots and the x-ray and radio correlations between the high- and low-Mach runs. Exploration of energy flow in these systems illustrates the general conversion of kinetic to thermal and magnetic energy in all of our simulations. Specifically, we examine conversion of energy type and the spatial transport of energy to the ambient medium. Determination of the evolution of the energy distribution in these objects will enhance our understanding of the role of AGN feedback in cluster environments.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.149-151
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• 2005

We have studied the environmental effect on optical-NIR color gradients of 273 nearby elliptical galaxies. Color gradient is a good tool to study the evolutionary history of elliptical galaxies, since the steepness of the color gradient reflects merging history of early types. When an elliptical galaxy goes through many merging events, the color gradient can be get less steep or reversed due to mixing of stars. One simple way to measure color gradient is to compare half-light radii in different bands. We have compared the optical and near infrared half-light radii of 273 early-type galaxies from Pahre (1999). Not surprisingly, we find that $r_e(V)s$ (half-light radii measured in V-band) are in general larger than $r_e(K)s$ (half-light radii measured in K-band). However, when divided into different environments, we find that elliptical galaxies in the denser environment have gentler color gradients than those in the less dense environment. Our finding suggests that elliptical galaxies in the dense environment have undergone many merging events and the mixing of stars through the merging have created the gentle color gradients.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.161-172
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• 2013

A focal reducer is developed for CQUEAN (Camera for QUasars in EArly uNiverse), which is a CCD imaging system on the 2.1 m Otto Struve telescope at the McDonald observatory. It allows CQUEAN to secure a wider field of view by reducing the effective focal length by a factor of three. The optical point spread function without seeing effects is designed to be within one pixel ($0.283^{\prime\prime}$) over the field of view of $4.82^{\prime}{\times}4.82^{\prime}$ in optimum wavelength ranges of 0.8-1.1 ${\mu}m$. In this paper, we describe and discuss the characteristics of optical design, the lens and barrel fabrications and the alignment processes. The observation results show that the image quality of the focal reducer confirms the expectations from the design.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.153-155
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• 2007

We have analyzed H and $K_s$-band images of the Arches cluster obtained using the NIRC2 instrument on Keck with the laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS AO) system. With the help of the LGS AO system, we were able to obtain the deepest ever photometry for this cluster and its neighborhood, and derive the background-subtracted present-day mass function (PDMF) down to $1.3M_{\bigodot}$ for the 5"-9" annulus of the cluster. We find that the previously reported turnover at $6M_{\bigodot}$ is simply due to a local bump in the mass function (MF), and that the MF continues to increase down to our 50 % completeness limit ($1.3M_{\bigodot}$) with a power-law exponent of ${\Gamma}$ = -0.91 for the mass range of 1.3 < M/$M_{\bigodot}$ < 50. Our numerical calculations for the evolution of the Arches cluster show that the ${\Gamma}$ values for our annulus increase by 0.1-0.2 during the lifetime of the cluster, and thus suggest that the Arches cluster initially had ${\Gamma}$ of $-1.0{\sim}-1.1$, which is only slightly shallower than the Salpeter value.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.72.1-72.1
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• 2010

Gas materials in the inner Galactic disk continuously migrate toward the Galactic center (GC) due to interactions with the bar potential, magnetic fields, stars, and other gaseous materials. In case of the Milky Way, those in forms of molecules appear to accumulate around 200 pc from the center (the central molecular zone, CMZ) to form stars there and further inside. The bar potential in the GC is thought to be responsible for such acculmulation of molecules and subsequent star formation, which is believed to have been continous throughout the lifetime of the Galaxy. We present 3-D hydrodynamic simulations of the CMZ that consider self-gravity, radiative cooling, and supernova feedback, and discuss the efficiency and role of the star formation in that region. We find that the gas accumulated in the CMZ by a bar potential of the inner bulge effectively turns into stars, supporting the idea that the stellar cusp inside the central 200 pc is a result of the sustained star formation in the CMZ. The obtained star formation rate in the CMZ, 0.03-0.1 Msun, is consistent with the recent estimate based on the mid-infrared observations by Yusef-Zadeh et al. We discuss the secular evolution of nuclear bulges in general, based on our results.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.93-103
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• 2017

We explore the shock acceleration model for giant radio relics, in which relativistic electrons are accelerated via diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) by merger-driven shocks in the outskirts of galaxy clusters. In addition to DSA, turbulent acceleration by compressive MHD modes downstream of the shock are included as well as energy losses of postshock electrons due to Coulomb scattering, synchrotron emission, and inverse Compton scattering off the cosmic background radiation. Considering that only a small fraction of merging clusters host radio relics, we favor a reacceleration scenario in which radio relics are generated preferentially by shocks encountering the regions containing low-energy (${\gamma}_e{\leq}300$) cosmic ray electrons (CRe). We perform time-dependent DSA simulations of spherically expanding shocks with physical parameters relevant for the Sausage radio relic, and calculate the radio synchrotron emission from the accelerated CRe. We find that significant level of postshock turbulent acceleration is required in order to reproduce broad profiles of the observed radio flux densities of the Sausage relic. Moreover, the spectral curvature in the observed integrated radio spectrum can be explained, if the putative shock should have swept up and exited out of the preshock region of fossil CRe about 10 Myr ago.

• 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.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.105-110
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• 2003

Recent observations of galaxy clusters in radio and X-ray indicate that cosmic rays and magnetic fields may be energetically important in the intracluster medium. According to the estimates based on theses observational studies, the combined pressure of these two components of the intracluster medium may range between $10\%{\~}100\%$ of gas pressure, although their total energy is probably time dependent. Hence, these non-thermal components may have influenced the formation and evolution of cosmic structures, and may provide unique and vital diagnostic information through various radiations emitted via their interactions with surrounding matter and cosmic background photons. We suggest that shock waves associated with cosmic structures, along with individual sources such as active galactic nuclei and radio galaxies, supply the cosmic rays and magnetic fields to the intracluster medium and to surrounding large scale structures. In order to study 1) the properties of cosmic shock waves emerging during the large scale structure formation of the universe, and 2) the dynamical influence of cosmic rays, which were ejected by AGN-like sources into the intracluster medium, on structure formation, we have performed two sets of N-body /hydrodynamic simulations of cosmic structure formation. In this contribution, we report the preliminary results of these simulations.