Mass Distribution in the Central Few Parsecs of Our Galaxy

We estimate the enclosed mass profile in the central 10 pc of the Milky Way by analyzing the infrared photometry and the velocity observations of dynamically relaxed stellar population in the Galactic center. HST/NICMOS and Gemini Adaptive Optics images in the archive are used to obtain the number density profile, and proper motion and radial velocity data were compiled from the literature to find the velocity dispersion profile assuming a spherical symmetry and velocity isotropy. From these data, we calculate the enclosed mass and density profiles in the central 10 pc of the Galaxy using the Jeans equation. Our improved estimates can better describe the exact evolution of the molecular clouds and star clusters falling down to the Galactic center, and constrain the star formation history of the inner part of the Galaxy.Comment: To appear in the Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society, vol. 42, p. 17 (2009

Reddening Behaviors of Galaxies in the SDSS Photometric System

We analyze the behaviors of reddening vectors in the SDSS photometric system for galaxies of different morphologies, ages, and redshifts. As seen in other photometric systems, the dependence of reddening on the spectral energy distribution (SED) and the nonlinearity of reddening are likewise non-negligible for the SDSS system if extinction is significant (~> 1 mag). These behaviors are most significant for the g filter, which has the largest bandwidth-to-central wavelength ratio among SDSS filters. The SDSS colors involving adjacent filters show greater SED-dependence and nonlinearity. A procedure for calculating the correct amount of extinction from an observed color excess is provided. The relative extinctions between (i.e., the extinction law for) SDSS filters given by Schlegel et al., which were calculated with an older version of filter response functions, would underestimate the amount of extinction in most cases by ~5 to 10 % (maximum ~20 %). We recommend A/A_{5500} values of 1.574, 1.191, 0.876, 0.671 & 0.486 for the u, g, r, i, & z filters, respectively, as a representative extinction law for the SDSS galaxies with a small extinction (i.e., for cases where the nonlinearity and SED-dependence of the reddening is not important). The dependence of reddening on redshift at low extinction is the largest for colors involving the g filter as well, which is due to the Balmer break.Comment: Published in PASP, 119, 1449 (Dec. 2007

A Second-order bias model for the Logarithmic Halo Mass Density

We present an analytic model for the local bias of dark matter halos in a LCDM universe. The model uses the halo mass density instead of the halo number density and is searched for various halo mass cuts, smoothing lengths, and redshift epoches. We find that, when the logarithmic density is used, the second-order polynomial can fit the numerical relation between the halo mass distribution and the underlying matter distribution extremely well. In this model the logarithm of the dark matter density is expanded in terms of log halo mass density to the second order. The model remains excellent for all halo mass cuts (from M_{cut}=3\times10^{11}$to$3\times10^{12}h^{-1}M_{\odot}$), smoothing scales (from$R=5h^{-1}$Mpc to$50h^{-1}$Mpc), and redshift ranges (from z=0 to 1.0) considered in this study. The stochastic term in the relation is found not entirely random, but a part of the term can be determined by the magnitude of the shear tensor.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication on Ap

Low-End Mass Function of the Arches Cluster

The initial mass function (IMF) of the Arches cluster, which was formed a few million years ago in the harsh environment of the Galactic center (GC), has long been a target of interest to those who study the GC and the theory of star formation. The distinct star-forming conditions in the GC might have caused the cluster to have a shallower slope or an elevated lower mass cutoff in its IMF. But its mass function has been revealed only down to 1-2 Msun (the lower limit of resolved stars), and the low- end mass function of the Arches is still unknown. To estimate the unresolved part of the Arches mass function, we have devised a novel photometric method that involves the histogram of pixel intensities in the observed image, which contains information on the unresolved, faint stars. By comparing the pixel intensity histograms (PIHs) of numerous artificial images constructed from model IMFs with the observed PIH, we find that the best-fit model IMF for the Arches cluster has a cutoff mass less than or similar to 0.1 Msun and a shape very close to that of the Kroupa MF. Our findings imply that the IMF of the Arches cluster is similar to those found in the Galactic disk.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

Alternating Direction Implicit Method for Two-Dimensional Fokker-Planck Equation of Dense Spherical Stellar Systems

The Fokker-Planck (FP) model is one of the commonly used methods for studies of the dynamical evolution of dense spherical stellar systems such as globular clusters and galactic nuclei. The FP model is numerically stable in most cases, but we find that it encounters numerical difficulties rather often when the effects of tidal shocks are included in two-dimensional (energy and angular momentum space) version of the FP model or when the initial condition is extreme (e.g., a very large cluster mass and a small cluster radius). To avoid such a problem, we have developed a new integration scheme for a two-dimensional FP equation by adopting an Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) method given in the Douglas-Rachford split form. We find that our ADI method reduces the computing time by a factor of ~2 compared to the fully implicit method, and resolves problems of numerical instability.Comment: Published in J. Korean Astron. Soc., 40, 91 (2007

Topology of Luminous Red Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We present measurements of the genus topology of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 catalog, with unprecedented statistical significance. To estimate the uncertainties in the measured genus, we construct 81 mock SDSS LRG surveys along the past light cone from the Horizon Run 3, one of the largest N-body simulations to date that evolved 7210^3 particles in a 10815 Mpc/h size box. After carefully modeling and removing all known systematic effects due to finite pixel size, survey boundary, radial and angular selection functions, shot noise and galaxy biasing, we find the observed genus amplitude to reach 272 at 22 Mpc/h smoothing scale with an uncertainty of 4.2%; the estimated error fully incorporates cosmic variance. This is the most accurate constraint of the genus amplitude to date, which significantly improves on our previous results. In particular, the shape of the genus curve agrees very well with the mean topology of the SDSS LRG mock surveys in the LCDM universe. However, comparison with simulations also shows small deviations of the observed genus curve from the theoretical expectation for Gaussian initial conditions. While these discrepancies are mainly driven by known systematic effects such as those of shot noise and redshift-space distortions, they do contain important cosmological information on the physical effects connected with galaxy formation, gravitational evolution and primordial non-Gaussianity. We address here the key role played by systematics on the genus curve, and show how to accurately correct for their effects to recover the topology of the underlying matter. In a forthcoming paper, we provide an interpretation of those deviations in the context of the local model of non-Gaussianity.Comment: 23 pages, 18 figures. APJ Supplement Series 201