• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.249-260
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• 2003

ASTRO-F is the next generation Japanese infrared space mission of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. ASTRO-F will be dedicated to an All Sky Survey in the far-infrared in 4 bands from 50-200microns with 2 additional mid-infrared bands at 9microns and 20microns. This will be the first all sky survey in the infrared since the ground breaking IRAS mission almost 20 years ago and the first ever survey at 170microns. The All Sky Survey should detect 10's of millions of sources in the far-infrared bands most of which will be dusty luminous and ultra-luminous star forming galaxies, with as many as half lying at redshifts greater than unity. In this contribution, the ASTRO-F mission and its objectives are reviewed and many of the mission expectations are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2003

There is accumulating evidence for a strong link between nuclear starbursts and AGN. Molecular gas in the central regions of galaxies plays a critical role in fueling nuclear starburst activity and feeding central AGN. The dense molecular ISM is accreted to the nuclear regions by stellar bars and galactic interactions. Here we describe recent observational results for the OB star forming regions in M51 and the nuclear star burst in Arp 220 - both of which have approximately the same rate of star formation per unit mass of ISM. We suggest that the maximum efficiency for forming young stars is an Eddington-like limit imposed by the radiation pressure of newly formed stars acting on the interstellar dust. This limit corresponds to approximately 500 $L_{\bigodot} / M_{\bigodot}$ for optically thick regions in which the radiation has been degraded to the NIR. Interestingly, we note that some of the same considerations can be important in AGN where the source of fuel is provided by stellar evolution mass-loss or ISM accretion. Most of the stellar mass-loss occurs from evolving red giant stars and whether their mass-loss can be accreted to a central AGN or not depends on the radiative opacity of the mass-loss material. The latter depends on whether the dust survives or is sublimated (due to radiative heating). This, in turn, is determined by the AGN luminosity and the distance of the mass-loss stars from the AGN. Several AGN phenomena such as the broad emission and absorption lines may arise in this stellar mass-loss material. The same radiation pressure limit to the accretion may arise if the AGN fuel is from the ISM since the ISM dust-to-gas ratio is the same as that of stellar mass-loss.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.157-160
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• 2007

I present a model to explain the mass segregation and shallow mass functions observed in the central parts of starburst stellar clusters. The model assumes that the initial pre-stellar cores mass function resulting from the turbulent fragmentation of the proto-cluster cloud is significantly altered by the cores coalescence before they collapse to form stars. With appropriate, yet realistic parameters, this model based on the competition between cores coalescence and collapse reproduces the mass spectra of the well studied Arches cluster. Namely, the slopes at the intermediate and high mass ends, as well as the peculiar bump observed at $6M_{\bigodot}$. This coalescence-collapse process occurs on a short timescale of the order of the free fall time of the proto-cluster cloud (i.e., a few $10^4$ years), suggesting that mass segregation in Arches and similar clusters is primordial. The best fitting model implies the total mass of the Arches cluster is $1.45{\times}10^5M_{\bigodot}$, which is slightly higher than the often quoted, but completeness affected, observational value of a few $10^4M_{\bigodot}$. The model implies a star formation efficiency of ${\sim}30$ percent which implies that the Arches cluster is likely to a gravitationally bound system.

• 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.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.285-286
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• 2012

We combine data from two all-sky surveys, the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope 22 Month Source Catalog and the AKARI Point Source Catalogue, in order to study the connection between the hard X-ray (> 10 keV) and infrared (IR) properties of local active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find two photometric diagnostics are useful for source classification: one is the X-ray luminosity vs. IR color diagram, in which type 1 radio-loud AGN are well isolated from other AGN. The second one uses the X-ray vs. IR color-color diagram as a redshift-independent indicator for identifying Compton-thick (CT) AGN. Importantly, CT AGN and starburst galaxies in composite systems can also be separated in this plane based upon their hard X-ray fluxes and dust temperatures. This diagram may be useful as a new indicator to classify objects in new surveys such as with WISE and NuSTAR.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.213-217
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• 2017

The recent updates of the North Ecliptic Pole deep ($0.5deg^2$, NEP-Deep) multi-wavelength survey covering from X-ray to radio-wave is presented. The NEP-Deep provides us with several thousands of $15{\mu}m$ or $18{\mu}m$ selected galaxies, which is the largest sample ever made at these wavelengths. A continuous filter coverage in the mid-infrared wavelength (7, 9, 11, 15, 18, and 24 µm) is unique and vital to diagnose the contributions from starbursts and AGNs in the galaxies out to z=2. The new goal of the project is to resolve the nature of the cosmic star formation history at the violent epoch (e.g. z=1-2), and to find a clue to understand its decline from z=1 to present universe by utilizing the unique power of the multiwavelength survey. The progress in this context is briefly mentioned.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.357-364
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• 2015

We observe ten known 22GHz H₂O maser galaxies during February 19-22, 2011 using the 21 m Tamna telescope of the Korean VLBI Network and a new wide-band digital spectrometer. Simultaneously we searched for 43GHz SiO v = 1, 2, J = 1-0 maser emission. We detect H₂O maser emission towards five sources (M 33, NGC 1052, NGC 1068, NGC 4258, M 82), with non-detections towards the remaining sources (UGC 3193, UGC 3789, Antennae H₂O-West, M 51, NGC 6323) likely due to sensitivity. Our 22GHz spectra are consistent with earlier findings. Our simultaneous 43GHz SiO maser search produced non-detections, yielding - for the first time - upper limits on the 43GHz SiO maser emission in these sources at a 3 σ sensitivity level of 0.018K-0.033K (0.24 Jy-0.44 Jy) in a 1.75 km s⁻¹ velocity resolution. Our findings suggest that any 43GHz SiO masers in these sources (some having starburst-associated H₂O kilomasers) must be faint compared to the 22GHz H₂O maser emission.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.61.1-61.1
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• 2014

IC 10 is one of the most well-known irregular starburst dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. Its low metal and oxygen abundance together with proximity make it an excellent laboratory to test star formation models, especially in low-metallicity systems like galaxies in the early Universe as well as many other local dwarfs. Among a number of active star forming regions, we have detected H2O kilo-maser emission in the south-east region of IC 10(IC 10 SE) using the Korean VLBI Network(KVN). This maser line is likely to be associated with a giant molecular cloud identified in IC 10 SE by former CO studies. Using the HI and CO data from the VLA and SMA archive, we probe the atomic and molecular gas properties of IC 10 SE. We discuss how the cool gas morphology and kinematics are related with maser and star formation activity in IC 10 SE.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.40.2-40.2
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• 2016

The attenuation of starlight by dust in galactic environments is investigated through models of radiative transfer in a spherical, clumpy interstellar medium (ISM). We show that the attenuation curves are primarily determined by the wavelength dependence of absorption rather than by the underlying extinction (absorption+scattering) curve; the observationally derived attenuation curves cannot constrain a unique extinction curve unless the absorption or scattering efficiency is specified. Attenuation curves consistent with the Calzetti curve are found by assuming the silicate-carbonaceous dust model for the Milky Way (MW), but with the $2175{\AA}$ bump suppressed or absent. The discrepancy between our results and previous work that claimed the Small Magellanic Cloud dust to be the origin of the Calzetti curve is ascribed to the difference in adopted albedos; we use the theoretically calculated albedos whereas the previous ones adopted empirically derived albedos from observations of reflection nebulae. It is found that the model attenuation curves calculated with the MW dust are well represented by a modified Calzetti curve with a varying slope and UV bump strength. The strong correlation between the slope and UV bump strength, as found in star-forming galaxies at 0.5 < z < 2.0, is well reproduced if the abundance of the UV bump carriers is assumed to be 30-40% of that of the MW-dust; radiative transfer effects lead to shallower attenuation curves with weaker UV bumps as the ISM is more clumpy and dustier. We also argue that some of local starburst galaxies have a UV bump in their attenuation curves, albeit very weak.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.63.2-63.2
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• 2011

We present a photometric study of star clusters in three nearby barred spiral galaxies NGC 1300, NGC 1672 and NGC 6217. We use the Hubble Heritage CCD images taken with Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) of Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in several filters. We have selected hundreds of star clusters with V $\leq$ 24 mag in each galaxy, based on the morphological parameters and visual inspection. Most of the blue star clusters with B-V $\leq$ 0.5 are strongly concentrated in spiral arms. A significant fraction of these star clusters are distributed in ansae (the joint between spiral arms and bar structure). Some of the blue star clusters are also found in the nuclear starburst region, especially in NGC 1672. A small number of star clusters are found in the bar region. In contrast, the red star clusters with B-V < 0.5 are relatively uniformly located over the entire field of galaxy, and show some central concentration around the bulge. We discuss the physical properties of these star clusters with the expected results from simulations.