• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.39.1-39.1
• /
• 2019

Not all stars in the Universe are gravitationally bounded to galaxies. Since first discovered in 1951, observations have revealed that a significant fraction of stars fills the space between galaxies in local (low-redshift) galaxy clusters, observed as diffuse intracluster light (ICL). Theoretical models provide mechanisms for the production of intracluster stars as tidally stripped material or debris generated through numerous galaxy interactions during the hierarchical growth of the galaxy cluster. These mechanisms predict that most intracluster stars in local galaxy clusters are long-accumulated material since z~1. However, there is no observational evidence to verify this prediction. Here we report observations of abundant ICL for a massive (above $10^{14}$ solar masses) galaxy cluster at a redshift of z=1.24, when the Universe was 5 billion years old. We found that more than 10 per cent of the total light of the cluster is contributed by the diffuse ICL out to 110 kpc from the center of the cluster, comparable to 5-20 per cent in local, massive galaxy cluster. Furthermore, we found that the colour of the brightest cluster galaxy located in the core of the cluster is consistent with that of the ICL out to 200 kpc. Our results demonstrate that the majority of the intracluster stars present in the local Universe, contrary to most previous theoretical and observational studies, were built up during a short period and early (z>1) in the history of the Virgo-like massive galaxy cluster formation, and might be concurrent with the formation of the brightest cluster galaxy.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.60.3-61
• /
• 2016

Galaxy morphology involves complex effects from both secular and non-secular evolution of galaxies. Although it is a final product of galaxy evolution, it gives a clue to the processes that the a galaxy has gone through. Galaxy clusters are the sites where the most massive galaxies are found, and thus the most dramatic merger histories are embedded. Our deep imaging program (${\mu}{\sim}28\;mag\;arcsec^{-2}$), KASI-Yonsei Deep Imaging Survey for Clusters (KYDISC), targets 14 Abell clusters at z = 0.016 - 0.14 using IMACS/Magellan telescope and MegaCam/CFHT to investigate cluster galaxies especially on low surface brightness features related to galaxy interactions. We visually classify galaxy morphology based on criteria related to secular or merger related evolution and find that the morphological mixture of galaxies varies considerably from cluster to cluster. Moreover it depends on the characteristics (e.g. cluster mass) of cluster itself which implies that environmental effects in cluster scale is also an important factor to the evolution of galaxies together with intrinsic (secular) and galaxy merger. Our deep imaging survey for morphological inspection of cluster galaxies with low surface brightness is expected to be a useful basis to understand the nature of cluster galaxies and their internal/external evolutionary path.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.42 no.2
• /
• pp.46.1-46.1
• /
• 2017

Late-type galaxies falling into a cluster would evolve being influenced by the interactions with both the cluster and the nearby cluster member galaxies. Most numerical studies, however, tend to focus on the effects of the former with little work done on those of the later. We thus perform numerical study on the evolution of a late-type galaxy falling radially toward the cluster center interacting with neighbouring early-type galaxies, using N-body, hydrodynamical simulations. Based on the information about the typical galaxy encounters obtained by using the galaxy catalog of Coma cluster, we run the simulations for the cases where a Milky Way Galaxy-like late-type galaxy, flying either edge-on or face-on, experiences six consecutive collisions with twice more massive early-type galaxies having hot gas in their halos. Our simulations show that the evolution of the late-type galaxy can be significantly affected by the high-speed multiple collisions with the early-type galaxies, such as on the cold gas content and the star formation activity, particularly through the hydrodynamic interactions between the cold disk and the hot gas halos. By comparing our simulation results with those of others, we claim that the role of the galaxy-galaxy interactions on the evolution of late-type galaxies in clusters could be comparable with that of the galaxy-cluster interactions, depending on the dynamical history.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.32.3-32.3
• /
• 2018

We report a possible discovery of a relic of a dissolved star cluster in the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Using the hk index (${\equiv}$(Ca-b)-(b-y)) as a photometric metallicity indicator, we have successfully discriminated the metal-poor and metal-rich stars in the galaxy and found an unexpected number density peak of metal-poor stars near the galaxy center. The analysis of color-magnitude diagrams reveals that they appear to be originated from an old, metal-poor globular cluster which might be slightly farther than the bulk of field stars in the galaxy. This supports the presence of the star cluster remnants in the galaxy which have been suggested by previous studies. If confirmed, dissolution of a star cluster provides a piece of evidence of a cored dark-matter halo profile for the Sextans dwarf galaxy.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.35.1-35.1
• /
• 2016

Nearby galaxy clusters and their surrounding regions represent the current endpoint of evolution galaxy cluster evolution. We present a new catalog of 1589 galaxies, what we call Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog (EVCC), in wider area of the Virgo cluster based on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7. The EVCC covers an area 5.2 times larger than the footprint of the classical Virgo Cluster Catalog, and reaches out to 3.5 times the virial radius of the Virgo cluster. The EVCC contains fundamental information such as membership, morphology, and photometric parameters of galaxies. The EVCC defines a comprehensive galaxy sample covering a wider range in galaxy density that is significantly different from the inner region of the Virgo cluster. It will be the foundation for forthcoming galaxy evolution studies in the extended Virgo cluster region, complementing ongoing and planned Virgo cluster surveys at various wavelengths. We also present the large scale structures in the field around the Virgo cluster. We identified seven galaxy filaments and one possible sheet in three dimensions of super-galactic coordinates based on the HyperLEDA database. By examining spatial distribution and Hubble diagram of galaxies, we found that six filaments are directly associated with the main body of the Virgo cluster. On the other hand, one filament and one sheet are structures located at background of the main body of Virgo cluster. The EVCC and the filament structures will be the foundation for forthcoming studies of galaxy evolution in various environments as well as buildup of the galaxy cluster at z ~ 0, complementing ongoing and planned Virgo cluster surveys at various wavelengths.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.77.3-78
• /
• 2015

It is known that the galaxy evolution by direct interaction between galaxies is most active in a galaxy group. As a result, the satellite galaxies are closely related to their central galaxy in properties such as morphology, color and star formation rate (so-called 'galactic conformity'). However, it is not clear yet whether such conformity between galaxies is found in a galaxy cluster. Recently, Lee et al. (2014) have found a measurable correlation between the colors of bright galaxies and the mean colors of their faint companions in a cluster WHL J085910.0+294957 at z = 0.3, using the photometrically-selected cluster members. They suggest that such correlation may be the vestige of infallen groups in the cluster as one possibility. In order to confirm the small-scale conformity in galaxy clusters with higher reliability, we study the Virgo cluster using the Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog (EVCC). The cluster members are selected spectroscopically unlike in WHL J085910.0+294957. We examine the galactic conformity in two distinct areas of the Virgo cluster: the inner X-ray emission region and its outer region. We find a marginal conformity in color (> $2{\sigma}$ significance to bootstrap uncertainty) in the outer region, while no meaningful signal of small-scale conformity is detected in the X-ray emission region. We discuss the implication of this result, focusing on cluster mass assembly and cluster environmental effects on galaxy evolution.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
• /
• 2010.04a
• /
• pp.34.4-34.4
• /
• 2010

We present the properties of globular cluster systems for 10 early-type galaxies in low density environments obtained using deep images from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Using the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey as a counterpart in high-density environments, we investigate the role of environment in determining the properties of their globular cluster systems. We detect a strong colour bimodality of globular cluster systems in half of our galaxy sample. It is found that there is a strong correlation between the colour and richness of globular cluster populations and their host galaxy luminosities: the less bright galaxies possess bluer and fewer globular clusters as also seen in rich cluster environments. However, the mean colour of globular clusters in our field sample are slightly bluer than those in cluster environments at a given galaxy luminosity, and the colour of the red population has a steeper slope with absolute luminosity. By employing the YEPS simple stellar population model, the colour offset corresponds to metallicity difference of $\Delta$[F e/H ] ~ 0.15 - 1.20 or an age difference of $\Delta$age ~ 2 Gyr on average, implying that GCs in field galaxies appear to be either less metal-rich or younger than those in cluster galaxies. Although we have found that galaxy environment has a subtle effect on the formation and metal enrichment of GC systems, host galaxy mass is the primary factor that determines the stellar populations of GCs and the galaxy itself.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.33.2-33.2
• /
• 2018

Fossil galaxy cluster has a dominant central elliptical galaxy (${\Delta}M12$ >2 in 0.5Rvir) embedded in highly relaxed X-ray halo, which indicates dynamically stable and passively evolved system. These features are expected as a final stage of the cluster evolution in the hierarchical structure formation paradigm. It is known that Abell 2261(A2261 hereafter) is classified as a fossil cluster, but has unusual features such as a high central X-ray entropy (i.e., non-cool core system), which is not expected in normal fossil clusters. We perform a kinematic study with a spectroscopic data of 589 galaxies in the A2261 field. We define cluster member galaxies using the caustic method and discover a new second bright galaxy at ~1.5 Rvir (nearly the splash-back region). It implies the current fossil state of the cluster can break in the near future. In addition, with three independent substructure finding methods, we find that A2261 has many substructures within 3 Mpc from the center of the cluster. These findings support that A2261 is not in a dynamically stable state. We argue that A2261 is in a transitional phase of dynamical evolution of the galaxy cluster and maybe previously defined fossil cluster does not mean the final stage of the evolution of galaxy clusters.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.35.1-35.1
• /
• 2018

Bars are commonly found in disk galaxies. However, how bars form is yet unclear. There are two common pictures for the bar formation mechanism. Bars form through a physical process inherent in galaxies, or through and external process like galaxy-galaxy interaction. In this paper, we present the observational evidence that bars can form from another channel, namely a cluster-cluster interaction. We examined 105 galaxy clusters at 0.015

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.74.2-74.2
• /
• 2011

We probe the tidal perturbation parameter f of Virgo cluster galaxies. The goal is to measure the strength of tidal fields around individual galaxies to get better understanding gravitational processes that can affect galaxy evolution in the cluster environment. The f-value is defined as a logarithmic ratio between the net internal gravitational force within a galaxy and the external tidal force exerted by a neighboring galaxy. Hence, it provides one way to quantify the tidal field strength of galaxies, in particular, due to galaxy neighbors. In this study, we determine f-values of the VIVA galaxies, samples of the VLA Imaging study of Virgo galaxies in Atomic gas, using the Extended Virgo Cluster Catalog (EVCC) which is the most complete Virgo cluster catalog to date. With diagnostics based on the HI gas and R-band morphologies, we discuss the impact of the tidal fields on the evolution of the VIVA sample. Also, we compare the tidal field strength to the intra cluster medium (ICM) pressure for each sample galaxy to pin down environmental processes at work.