Excited-State OH Masers in the Water Fountain Source IRAS 18460-0151

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Ouyang, Xu-Jia, Zhang, Yong, Li, Juan, Nakashima, Jun-ichi, Chen, Xi, Qiao, Hai-Hua
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Ouyang, Xu-Jia
Zhang, Yong
Li, Juan
Nakashima, Jun-ichi
Chen, Xi
Qiao, Hai-Hua
author_facet Ouyang, Xu-Jia
Zhang, Yong
Li, Juan
Nakashima, Jun-ichi
Chen, Xi
Qiao, Hai-Hua
contents Water fountain objects are generally defined as "evolved stars with low to intermediate initial mass accompanied by high-velocity molecular jets detectable in the 22.235 GHz H$_2$O maser line". They are the key objects of understanding the morphological transitions of circumstellar envelopes during the post asymptotic giant branch phase. Masers are useful tools to trace the kinematic environments of the circumstellar envelopes. In this letter we report the discovery of exceptionally uncommon excited-state hydroxyl (ex-OH) masers at 4660 and 6031 MHz toward the water fountain source IRAS 18460-0151. These are the brightest ex-OH masers discovered in late-type objects to date. To the best of our knowledge, prior to the current work, no evolved stellar object has been observed in the 4660 MHz ex-OH maser line. The ground-state hydroxyl (g-OH) masers at 1612 and 1665 MHz are also observed. The velocity components of the 4660 MHz ex-OH maser line and the much weaker 1665 MHz g-OH maser line all can be seen in the 1612 MHz g-OH maser line profile. The blue-shifted components of the three masers are more intense than the red-shifted ones, in contrast to the ex-OH maser line at 6031 MHz. The relevance of the behaviors of the ex-OH masers to the circumstellar environments is unclear.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_08242
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Excited-State OH Masers in the Water Fountain Source IRAS 18460-0151
Ouyang, Xu-Jia
Zhang, Yong
Li, Juan
Nakashima, Jun-ichi
Chen, Xi
Qiao, Hai-Hua
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Water fountain objects are generally defined as "evolved stars with low to intermediate initial mass accompanied by high-velocity molecular jets detectable in the 22.235 GHz H$_2$O maser line". They are the key objects of understanding the morphological transitions of circumstellar envelopes during the post asymptotic giant branch phase. Masers are useful tools to trace the kinematic environments of the circumstellar envelopes. In this letter we report the discovery of exceptionally uncommon excited-state hydroxyl (ex-OH) masers at 4660 and 6031 MHz toward the water fountain source IRAS 18460-0151. These are the brightest ex-OH masers discovered in late-type objects to date. To the best of our knowledge, prior to the current work, no evolved stellar object has been observed in the 4660 MHz ex-OH maser line. The ground-state hydroxyl (g-OH) masers at 1612 and 1665 MHz are also observed. The velocity components of the 4660 MHz ex-OH maser line and the much weaker 1665 MHz g-OH maser line all can be seen in the 1612 MHz g-OH maser line profile. The blue-shifted components of the three masers are more intense than the red-shifted ones, in contrast to the ex-OH maser line at 6031 MHz. The relevance of the behaviors of the ex-OH masers to the circumstellar environments is unclear.
title Excited-State OH Masers in the Water Fountain Source IRAS 18460-0151
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.08242