• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.56.1-56.1
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• 2021

Identifying the main source of reionization is one of the essential astrophysical problems that remain to be solved. But there are difficulties in directly measuring the Lyman continuum (LyC) escape fraction (fesc) from high-z galaxies, and other indirect methods have been suggested to identify potential LyC leakers. The O32 ratio ([OIII] λ5007 / [OII] λ3727) is one of those examples, which appear to positively correlate with fesc according to some observations and photoionization modelling of HII regions. However, recent studies fail to find such a correlation. Here we exploit a set of radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of giant molecular clouds to understand the physical connection between O32 and fesc. We post-process our simulations with the photo-ionization code Cloudy, and discuss the results obtained from the runs with different metallicities and input SEDs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.28.2-28.2
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• 2015

High redshift quasars (z > 5) hold keys to understanding the evolution of the universe in its early stage. Yet, the number of high redshift quasars uncovered from previous studies is relatively small (70 or so), and are concentrated mostly in a limited redshift range (z ~ 6). To understand the early mass growth of supermassive black holes and the final stage of the cosmic reionization, it is important to find a statistically meaningful sample of quasars with various physical properties. Here we present a survey for high redshift quasars at 5 < z < 7. Through color selection techniques using multi-wavelength data, we found quasar candidates and carried out imaging follow-up observations to reduce contaminants. After optical spectroscopy, we discovered eight new quasars. We obtained near-infrared spectra for 3 of these 8 quasars, measured their physical properties such as black hole masses and Eddington ratios, and found that the high redshift quasars we discovered are growing via accretion more vigorous than those of their lower redshift counterparts. We estimated the quasar number densities from our discoveries and compared them to those expected from the quasar luminosity functions in literature. In contrast to the observed number density of quasars at z ~ 5, which agrees with literature, the observed number density at z ~ 7 shows values lower than what is expected, even after considering an extrapolated number density evolution. We conclude that the quasar number density at z ~ 7 declines toward higher redshift, more steeply than the empirically expected evolution.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.34.2-34.2
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• 2015

We aim to investigate the formation of primordial globular clusters (GCs) in the isolated dwarf galaxy (${\sim}10^{10}M_{sun}$) with cosmological zoom-in simulations. For this, we modified cosmological hydrodynamic code, GADGET-3, in a way to include the radiative heating/cooling that enables gas particles cool down to T~10K, reionization (z < 8.9) of the Universe, UV shielding ($n_{shield}$ > $0.014cm^{-3}$), and star formation. Our simulation starts in a cubic box of a side length 1Mpc/h with 17 million particles from z = 49. The mass of each dark matter (DM) and gas particle is $M_{DM}=4.1{\times}10^3M_{sun}$ and $M_{gas}=7.9{\times}10^2M_{sun}$, respectively, thus the GC candidates can be resolved with more than hundreds particles. We found the following results: 1) mini halos with the more interactions before merging into the main halo form the more stars and thus have the higher star mass fraction ($M_{star}/M_{total}$), 2) the mini halos with the high $M_{star}/M_{total}$ can survive longer and thus spiral into closer to the galactic center, 3) the majority of them spiral into bulge, but some of them can survive until the last as baryon-dominated system, like the GC.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.52.2-53
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• 2017

We develop a methodology to use the redshift dependence of the galaxy 2-point correlation function (2pCF) as a probe of cosmological parameters. The positions of galaxies in comoving Cartesian space varies under different cosmological parameter choices, inducing a redshift-dependent scaling in the galaxy distribution. This geometrical distortion can be observed as a redshift-dependent rescaling in the measured 2pCF. The shape of the 2pCF exhibits a significant redshift evolution when the galaxy sample is analyzed under a cosmology differing from the true, simulated one. Other contributions, including the gravitational growth of structure, galaxy bias, and the redshift space distortions, do not produce large redshift evolution in the shape. We show that one can make use of this geometrical distortion to constrain the values of cosmological parameters governing the expansion history of the universe. This method could be applicable to future large scale structure surveys, especially photometric surveys such as DES, LSST, to derive tight cosmological constraints. This work is a continuation of our previous works as a strategy to constrain cosmological parameters using redshift-invariant physical quantities.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.77.4-78
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• 2016

Binary interactions may have significant impact on Pop III stellar evolution. Pop III single star evolution indicates that for primary masses less than $20M_{\odot}$, no significant binary mass transfer would occur before core helium exhaustion. We perform binary system evolution for various primary masses ($20M_{\odot}$ < $M_1$ < $60M_{\odot}$) and initial periods under same mass ratio $M_2/M_1=0.9$, and follow the evolution and mass transfer of the primary star. If binary mass transfer occurs during post main sequence, the primary star does not evolve into naked helium star and still contain significant hydrogen in the envelope. During the post mass transfer phase, the primary star evolves redward, and does not become sufficiently hot to enhance the number of ionizing photons, compared to the case of single star evolution for a given initial mass. This result implies that primary stars of massive Pop III binary systems would have little contribution to the reionization in the early universe. Given the large hydrogen content ($0.326-1.793M_{\odot}$), the primary stars that underwent stable mass transfers would explode as a Type IIb supernova, and it would be difficult for Pop III binary stars to produce Type Ib/c supernovae that look similar to those found in the local universe.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.123-144
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• 2003

The 8m class telescopes in the ground-based optical astronomy together with help from the ultra-sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope have enabled us to observe forming galaxies beyond red shift z = 5. In particular, more than twenty Ly$\alpha$-emitting galaxies have already been found at z > 5. These findings provide us with useful hints to investigate how galaxies formed and then evolved in the early universe. Further, detailed analysis of Ly$\alpha$ emission line profiles are useful in exploring the nature of the intergalactic medium because the trailing edge of cosmic reionization could be close to z $\~$ 6 -7, at which forming galaxies have been found recently. We also discuss the importance of superwinds from forming galaxies at high redshift, which has an intimate relationship between galaxies and the intergalactic medium. We then give a review of early cosmic star formation history based on recent progress in searching for Ly$\alpha$-emitting young galaxies beyond red shift 5.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.77.1-77.1
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• 2012

We have performed cosmological hydrodynamic simulations that include the effects of radiative heating/cooling, star formation, feedback by supernova explosions, and metallicity evolution. Our simulations cover a cubic box of a side length 4 Mpc/h with 130 million particles. The mass of each particle is $3.4{\times}10^4M_{\odot}$, thus sub-galactic mini-halos can be resolved with more than hundred particles. Our simulation follows the whole formation process of the mini-halos (M< $10^7M_{\odot}$) around dwarf galaxies. We discuss various properties of the mini halos such as mass function, specific frequency, baryon-to-dark matter ratio, metallicity, spatial distribution, and orbit eccentricity distribution as functions of redshift and host galaxy mass. We also discuss how the formation and evolution of the mini halos are affected by the epoch of the reionization.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.45.3-45.3
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• 2019

Since the high throughput for diffuse objects and the wide-area survey even with a small telescope can be achieved in space, infrared (IR) obervations have been tried through small missions in Korea. Based upon the previous technical development for infrared spectro-photometric instrument, NISS (Near-infrared Imaging Spectrometer for Star formation history) onboard NEXTSat-1, we participated in the all-sky infrared spectro-photometric survey mission, SPHEREx. The SPEHREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) was selected as the NASA MIDEX (Medium-class Explorer) mission (PI Institute: Caltech) in this February. As an international partner, KASI will take part in the hardware development, the operation and the science for the SPHEREx. The SPHEREx will perform the first all-sky infrared spectro-photometric survey to probe the origin of our Universe, to explore the origin and evolution of galaxies, and to explore whether planets around other stars could harbor life. For the purpose of the all-sky survey, the SPHEREx is designed to have a wide FoV of 3.5 × 11.3 deg. as well as wide spectral range from 0.75 to 5.0㎛. Here, we report the status of the SPHEREx project and the progress in the Korean participation.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.73.2-73.2
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• 2019

The physical origin of low escape fractions of ionizing radiation derived from Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z ~ 3 - 4 is a puzzle in the theory of reionization. We perform idealized disk galaxy simulations to investigate how galactic properties, such as metallicity and gas mass, affect the escape of Lyman continuum (LyC) photons using radiation-hydrodynamic code RAMSES-RT, with strong stellar feedback. We find that the luminosity-weighted escape fraction from a metal-poor (Z=0.002) galaxy embedded in a halo of mass M_h ~ 10¹¹ M_⊙ is 〈f^3D_esc〉 ~ 8%. However, when the gas metallicity is increased to Z=0.02, the escape fraction is significantly reduced to 〈f^3D_esc〉 ~ 1%, as young stars are enshrouded by their birth clouds for a longer period of time. On the other hand, increasing the gas mass by a factor of 5 leads to 〈f^3D_esc〉 ~ 4%, as LyC photons are only moderately absorbed by the thicker disk. Our experiments seem to suggest that high metallicity is primarily responsible for the low escape fractions observed from LBGs, supporting the scenario in which the escape fraction has a negative correlation with halo mass. Indeed, our simulated galaxy with the typical metallicity of LBGs (Z=0.006) shows the relative escape fraction of 8%, consistent with recent observations of galaxies with M₁₅₀₀ = -20.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.53.1-53.1
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• 2021

The KASI team are participating in the NASA MIDEX mission (PI Institute: Caltech), the all-sky infrared spectro-photometric surveyor SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer). The SPHEREx will provide us the first all-sky infrared spectro-photometric data set to probe the origin of our Universe, to explore the origin and evolution of galaxies, and to explore whether planets around other stars could harbor life. After the project PDR (Preliminary Design Review) was successfully passed on the last September, the fabrication of flight hardware is in progress. As an international partner, KASI deeply involved in all fields of projects, i.e., the development of calibration facility, the construction of data reduction modules and the science studies for the SPHEREx. After finishing the fabrication and test of calibration facility for the SPHEREx in this year, it will be delivered to Caltech. Here, we report the status of the SPHEREx project and the progress in the Korean participation.