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arXiv · 1709.09773

A catalog of 44 GHz methanol masers in massive star-forming regions. IV. The high-mass protostellar object sample

Carolina B. Rodríguez-Garza·Stanley E. Kurtz·Arturo I. Gómez-Ruiz·Peter Hofner·Esteban D. Araya·Sergei V. Kalenskii
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Abstract

We present a survey of 56 massive star-forming regions in the 44 GHz methanol maser transition made with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA); 24 of the 56 fields showed maser emission. The data allow us to demonstrate associations, at arcsecond precision, of the Class I maser emission with outflows, HII regions, and shocks traced by 4.5 micron emission. We find a total of 83 maser components with linewidths ranging from 0.17 to 3.3 km s$^{-1}$ with a nearly flat distribution and a median value of 1.1 km s$^{-1}$. The relative velocities of the masers with respect to the systemic velocity of the host clouds range from $-$2.5 to 3.1 km s$^{-1}$ with a distribution peaking near zero. We also study the correlation between the masers and the so-called extended green objects (EGOs) from the GLIMPSE survey. Multiple sources in each field are revealed from IR images as well as from centimeter continuum emission from VLA archival data; in the majority of cases the 44 GHz masers are positionally correlated with EGOs which seem to trace the younger sources in the fields. We report a possible instance of a 44 GHz maser associated with a low-mass protostar. If confirmed, this region will be the fifth known star-forming region that hosts Class I masers associated with low-mass protostars. We discuss three plausible cases of maser variability.

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Carolina B. Rodríguez-Garza, Stanley E. Kurtz, Arturo I. Gómez-Ruiz, Peter Hofner, Esteban D. Araya, Sergei V. Kalenskii. 2017-09-28. A catalog of 44 GHz methanol masers in massive star-forming regions. IV. The high-mass protostellar object sample. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aa8f4e

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