• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.207-212
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• 2015

We introduce the Lee Sang Gak Telescope (LSGT), a remotely operated, robotic 0.43-meter telescope. The telescope was installed at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, in 2014 October, to secure regular and exclusive access to the dark sky and excellent atmospheric conditions in the southern hemisphere from the Seoul National University (SNU) campus. Here, we describe the LSGT system and its performance, present example images from early observations, and discuss a future plan to upgrade the system. The use of the telescope includes (i) long-term monitoring observations of nearby galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and supernovae; (ii) rapid follow-up observations of transients such as gamma-ray bursts and gravitational wave sources; and (iii) observations for educational activities at SNU. Based on observations performed so far, we find that the telescope is capable of providing images to a depth of R = 21:5 mag (point source detection) at 5-σ with 15 min total integration time under good observing conditions.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.271-273
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• 2017

The AKARI North Ecliptic Pole Deep Field is a natural location to accomplish deep extragalactic surveys. It is supported by comprehensive ancillary data extending from radio to X-ray wavelengths, which have been used to classify radio sources as radio-loud and radio-quiet objects and to create a catalogue of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). This has been achieved by using a radio-optical classification and colour-colour diagrams rather than the more usual way based on spectroscopy Furthermore, we explore whether this technique can be extended by using a far-Infrared (FIR) colour-colour diagram which has been used to identify 268 high redshift candidates.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.80-80
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• 2010

About 50% of Active Galactic Nuclei(AGNs) are found to be red and dust-obscured. They are believed to be in an early dusty stage of AGNs evolution or affected by dust torus in the direction of line of sight. However, optical spectrum is affected by dust extinction, making it difficult to study their properties, such as FWHM and luminosity. In order to reveal the mass of central Black Hole(BH) in red AGN, we establish a new BH mass estimator for typical type1 AGNs using Near InfraRed(NIR) hydrogen line($P_{\alpha}$ and $P_{\beta}$), since these lines are at longer wavelength, less affected by dust extinction than optical hydrogen lines, such as $H_{\alpha}$ and $H_{\alpha}$. To derive the new empirical formula, we use a sample of well-known 36 AGN with a wide BH mass range of $10^6-10^9\;M_{\odot}$, where $M_{BH}s$ are estimated by reverberation mapping method and single epoch method. The $P_{\alpha}/P_{\beta}$ luminosities and FWHMs are derived by analyzing IRTF NIR spectra or taken from literature values. We show that luminosities and FWHMs of these lines correlate well with those of Balmer lines. Suggesting that Paschen and Balmer broad lines are originated from same region. Finally, we present the new $M_{BH}$ formula that are based on $P_{\alpha}/P_{\beta}$ luminosity and FWHM. We hope that our result will be used for investigating red AGNs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.40.2-40.2
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• 2014

The connection between the active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and star formation activity is one of the most important issues in understanding the coevolution of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and galaxies. In our recent study, by using SDSS quasar spectra we found that the emission-line flux rations involving a nitrogen line, i.e., $NV{\lambda}1240$, correlate with the Eddington ratio. This correlation suggests that the mass accretion into SMBH is associated with a post-starburst phase, when AGB stars enrich the interstellar medium with the nitrogen. Moreover, we focused on nitrogen-loud quasars, which have prominent emission lines of the nitrogen, to investigate whether this argument is correct or not. We will present our recent results described above and discuss the relation between the star formation and feeding to SMBHs.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.89-110
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• 2018

Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) variability can be used to study the physics of the region in the vicinity of the central black hole. In this paper, we investigated intra-night optical variability of AGN in the COSMOS field in order to understand the AGN instability at the smallest scale. Observations were performed using the KMTNet on three separate nights for 2.5 to 5 hours at a cadence of 20 to 30 min. We find that the observation enables the detection of short-term variability as small as ~ 0.02 and 0.1 mag for R ~ 18 and 20 mag sources, respectively. Using four selection methods (X-rays, mid-infrared, radio, and matching with SDSS quasars), 394 AGN are detected in the $4deg^2$ field of view. After differential photometry and ${\chi}^2$-test, we classify intra-night variable AGN. The fraction of variable AGN (0-8%) is statistically consistent with a null result. Eight out of 394 AGN are found to be intra-night variable in two filters or two nights with a variability level of 0.1 mag, suggesting that they are strong candidates for intra-night variable AGN. Still they represent a small population (2%). There is no sub-category of AGN that shows a statistically significant intra-night variability.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2007

About 10 percent of quasars are known to exhibit deep broad absorption troughs blueward of prominent permitted emission lines, which are usually attributed to the existence of outflows slightly above he accretion disk around the supermassive black hole. Typical widths up to 0.2c of these absorption roughs indicate the velocity scales in which special relativistic effects may not be negligible. Under he assumption of the ubiquity of the broad absorption line region in quasars, the broad emission line flux will exhibit Thomson scattered components from these fast outflows. In this paper, we provide our Monte Carlo calculation of linear polarization of singly Thomson scattered line radiation with the careful considerations of special relativistic effects. The scattering region is approximated by a collection of rings that are moving outward with speeds ${\upsilon}=c{\beta}<0.2c$ near the equatorial plane, and the scattered line photons are collected according to its direction and wavelength in the observer's rest frame. We find that the significantly extended red tail appears in the scattered radiation. We also find that the linear degree of polarization of singly Thomson scattered line radiation is wavelength-dependent and hat there are significant differences in the linear degree of polarization from that computed from classical physics in the far red tail. We propose that the semi-forbidden broad emission line C III]1909 may be significantly contributed from Thomson scattering because this line has small resonance scattering optical depth in the broad absorption line region, which leads to distinct and significant polarized flux in this broad emission line.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.38.2-38.2
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• 2020

Horizon Run 5 (HR5) is a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation which captures the properties of the Universe on a Gpc scale while achieving a resolution of 1 kpc. This enormous dynamic range allows us to simultaneously capture the physics of the cosmic web on very large scales and account for the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies on much smaller scales. Inside the simulation box. we zoom-in on a high-resolution cuboid region with a volume of 1049 × 114 × 114 Mpc3. The subgrid physics chosen to model galaxy formation includes radiative heating/cooling, reionization, star formation, supernova feedback, chemical evolution tracking the enrichment of oxygen and iron, the growth of supermassive black holes and feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the form of a dual jet-heating mode. For this simulation we implemented a hybrid MPI-OpenMP version of the RAMSES code, specifically targeted for modern many-core many thread parallel architectures. For the post-processing, we extended the Friends-of-Friend (FoF) algorithm and developed a new galaxy finder to analyse the large outputs of HR5. The simulation successfully reproduces many observations, such as the cosmic star formation history, connectivity of galaxy distribution and stellar mass functions. The simulation also indicates that hydrodynamical effects on small scales impact galaxy clustering up to very large scales near and beyond the baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) scale. Hence, caution should be taken when using that scale as a cosmic standard ruler: one needs to carefully understand the corresponding biases. The simulation is expected to be an invaluable asset for the interpretation of upcoming deep surveys of the Universe.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.187-196
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• 2005

From the line ratios of Si III] 1892 to C III] 1909 (Feibelman & Aller 1987), we estimated the BLR electron densities and their changes of Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7469 using IUE spectra observed from June 11 to July 29, 1996 (Wanders et al. 1997). We separated blended Si III] and C III] lines using the STARLINK/DIPSO and measured their fluxes within the error of $12.4\%\;and\;6.6\%,$ respectively. Electron density fluctuated from $10^{9.69}\;to\;10^{10.93}$ during about two month period, i.e. 17.3 times density variation within 50 days. We also derived time delays from UV emission line variations .elative to the continuum $(at\;1315{\AA}):$ 2 days for C IV, 4 days for C III], 8 days for Si III]. This suggests that their stratified UV line emission regions are at 0.002 pc, 0.004 pc and 0.006 pc, respectively, from the central region. Based on the BLR sizes and their rotation velocities deduced from the line profiles, we estimate the central black hole mass as about $10^6M_{\odot}$

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.69-80
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• 2009

We investigate the dependence of star formation rate and Active Galaxy Nuclei (AGN) frequency on the bar properties, especially the bar strength, using SDSS DR6. To better represent the bar strength, we divided the bars into 6 classes according to their length and axial ratios. There seems to be a fairly good correlation between the star formation rate derived from $H{\alpha}$ emission lines and the bar strength, whereas there is no apparent correlation between the AGN activity and the bar strength. We interpret that the former correlation is due to the dependence of bar-driven gas inflow on the strength of bar. The lack of correlation between AGN and bar properties suggests that the accretion of gas onto a supermassive black hole (SMBH) is regulated by the interplay between the bar and SMBH. The frequency of AGN seems to be dependent on the background density but the star formation rate does not. It suggests that star formation is a localized phenomenon that is mostly determined by the gas density in a galaxy, while AGN activity is more closely related to the host property such as mass and luminosity that are thought to be dependent on the environment through the density-luminosity relation.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.89-102
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• 2021

Even in an era where 8-meter class telescopes are common, small telescopes are considered very valuable research facilities since they are available for rapid follow-up or long term monitoring observations. To maximize the usefulness of small telescopes in Korea, we established the SomangNet, a network of 0.4-1.0 m class optical telescopes operated by Korean institutions, in 2020. Here, we give an overview of the project, describing the current participating telescopes, its scientific scope and operation mode, and the prospects for future activities. SomangNet currently includes 10 telescopes that are located in Australia, USA, and Chile as well as in Korea. The operation of many of these telescopes currently relies on operators, and we plan to upgrade them for remote or robotic operation. The latest SomangNet science projects include monitoring and follow-up observational studies of galaxies, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, symbiotic stars, solar system objects, neutrino/gravitational-wave sources, and exoplanets.