Water masers in dusty environments

Abstract

We study in details a pumping mechanism for the lambda=1.35 cm maser transition 6_16 -> 5_23 in ortho-water based on the difference between gas and dust temperatures. The upper maser level is populated radiatively through 4_14 -> 5_05 and 5_05 -> 6_16 transitions. The heat sink is realized by absorbing the 45 mum photons, corresponding to the 5_23 -> 4_14 transition, by cold dust. We compute the inversion of maser level populations in the optically thick medium as a function of the hydrogen concentration, the gas-to-dust mass ratio, and the difference between the gas and the dust temperatures. The main results of numerical simulations are interpreted in terms of a simplified four-level model. We show that the maser strength depends mostly on the product of hydrogen concentration and the dust-to-water mass ratio but not on the size distribution of the dust particles or their type. We also suggest approximate formulae that describe accurately the inversion and can be used for fast calculations of the maser luminosity. Depending on the gas temperature, the maximum maser luminosity is reached when the water concentration N_water ~ 10^6-10^7 cm^-3 times the dust-to-hydrogen mass ratio, and the inversion completely disappears at density just an order of magnitude larger. For the dust temperature of 130 K, the 6_16 -> 5_23 transition becomes inverted already at the temperature difference of Delta T ~1 K, while other possible masing transitions require a larger Delta T > 30 K. We identify the region of the parameter space where other ortho- and para-water masing transitions can appear.