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SMA Observations of 321 GHz water maser emission in Cepheus A. Nimesh A. Patel Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Submillimeter Array. Collaborators:. Salvador Curiel (UNAM) Qizhou Zhang (CfA) T. K. Sridharan (CfA) Paul T. P. Ho (CfA, ASIAA) Jose M. Torrelles (CSIC-IEEC).
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SMA Observations of 321 GHz water maser emission in Cepheus A Nimesh A. Patel Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Submillimeter Array Collaborators: Salvador Curiel (UNAM) Qizhou Zhang (CfA) T. K. Sridharan (CfA) Paul T. P. Ho (CfA, ASIAA) Jose M. Torrelles (CSIC-IEEC) Patel, Curiel, Zhang et al. (2007), ApJ 658,L55
Discovery of submillimeter H2O masers: 321 GHz: K. Menten, G. Melnick & G. Phillips, 1990, ApJ, 350, L41
Motivation: To map the 321 GHz water maser emission with the SMA To use the 22/321 GHz line ratio to probe the physical conditions in regions of massive star-formation with high spatial resolution. To understand the physics of the excitation of submillimeter water maser transitions.
Cepheus A massive star-forming region contours: VLA 1.3cm radio continuum, + 22 GHz masers @ 0.1”resolution Torrelles, Gomez, Garay et al. 1998, ApJ 509,262 725 AU
Disk and jet in Cepheus A HW2 SMA (ext. array) 0.8” 330 GHz continuum CH3CN VLA radio continuum 3.6 cm 1.3 cm Brogan et al. (2005 PPV) Martin-Pintado et al. (2005, ApJ, 628,L61) Comito et al. (2005 IAU#231) Patel, Curiel, Sridharan et al., 2005, Nature, 427,109
See also: Posters on methanol masers VLBI observations by K. Torstensson & H. J. van Langevelde (JIVE) Sugiyama et al. (JVN) Gallimore et al. (2003) ApJ 586, 306 MERLIN observations 200 AU Vlemmings, Diamond, van Langevelde & Torrelles, 2006, A&A, 448,597
Bipolar molecular outflow observed in HCO+ blueshifted + redshifted 0.07 pc + HW2 Gomez, Sargent, Torrelles et al. 1999, ApJ, 514, 287 CO outflow: Rodriguez, Ho & Moran, 1980, ApJ, 240, L149
Observations: SMA 30 August 2004 extended configuration, 0.8’’x0.7’’ rms noise ~350 mJy/beam VLA 12 October 2004 A-array 0.09’’x0.07’’ rms noise ~3 mJy/beam
Cepheus-A 321 GHz masers in HW2 and HW3c -19 -21 -11 -3.5 to +1 km/s
Modelling population inversion of submm. water maser transitions Yates, Field & Gray (1997) MNRAS, 285, 303 ALI no LVG approximation 22 GHz line is inverted over a broad range of parameters. 200-2000K n=10^8 - 10^9 cm^-3
Over time scales of months: highly luminous sources less variable brighter (>10 Jy) masers less variable proper motion studies with VLBA time-variability of 22 GHz masers Cepheus A maser monitoring: Lekht et al. 1983, Sov. Astron. 26, 170
321 GHz masers detected in HW2 and HW3c in the Cepheus-A high-mass star-forming region 3 out of 9 submillimeter masers are associated with 22 GHz masers submillimeter masers trace the outflow jet, presumably arising in hot gas (1000~2000 K) Multi-transition observations of H2O masers can be used to constrain theoretical models of excitation Submillimeter masers, along with cm masers can be used to probe physical conditions such as temperature in star-forming regions Cepheus-A 321 GHz masers Conclusions
Future work • Other high-mass star-forming regions: W75N, W3(OH), NGC6334 • Masers in 400 GHz band • Simultaneous observations with VLA
The SMA project is a collaboration between SAO and ASIAA, Taiwan. We thank the SMA staff for their help with observations. We thank Jim Moran, Gary Melnick, David Neufeld and Liz Humphreys for helpful discussions.