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arXiv · 1907.11720

OH maser emission in the THOR survey of the northern Milky Way

H. Beuther·A. Walsh·Y. Wang·M. Rugel·J. Soler·H. Linz·R. S. Klessen·L. D. Anderson·J. S. urquhart·S. C. O. Glover·S. J. Billington·J. Kainulainen·K. M. Menten·N. Roy·S. N. Longmore·F. Bigiel
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Abstract

Context: OH masers trace diverse physical processes, from the expanding envelopes around evolved stars to star-forming regions or supernovae remnants. Aims: We identify the ground-state OH masers at 18cm wavelength in the area covered by ``The HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the Milky Way (THOR)''. We present a catalogue of all OH maser features and their possible associated environments. Methods: The THOR survey covers longitude and latitude ranges of 14.3<l<66.8 and b<1.25 deg. All OH ground state lines at 1612, 1665, 1667 and 1720MHz have been observed, employing the Very Large Array. The spatial resolution of the data varies between 12.5'' and 19'', the spectral resolution is 1.5km/s, and the rms sensitivity of the data is ~10mJy/beam per channel. Results: We identify 1585 individual maser spots distributed over 807 maser sites. Based on different criteria from spectral profiles to literature comparison, we try to associate the maser sites with astrophysical source types. Approximately 51\% of the sites exhibit the double-horned 1612MHz spectra typically emitted from the expanding shells of evolved stars. The separations of the two main velocity features of the expanding shells typically vary between 22 and 38km/s. In addition to this, at least 20% of the maser sites are associated with star-forming regions. While the largest fraction of 1720MHz maser spots (21 out of 53) is associated with supernova remnants, a significant fraction of the 1720MHz maser spots (17) are also associated with star-forming regions. We present comparisons to the thermal 13CO(1-0) emission as well as to other surveys of class II CH3OH and H2O maser emission. The catalogue attempts to present associations to astrophysical sources where available, and the full catalogue is available in electronic form.

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H. Beuther, A. Walsh, Y. Wang, M. Rugel, J. Soler, H. Linz, R. S. Klessen, L. D. Anderson, J. S. urquhart, S. C. O. Glover, S. J. Billington, J. Kainulainen, K. M. Menten, N. Roy, S. N. Longmore, F. Bigiel. 2019-07-26. OH maser emission in the THOR survey of the northern Milky Way. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361%2F201935936

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