Abstract
We report the results of a full-Stokes survey of all four 18 cm OH lines in 77 OH megamasers (OHMs) using the Arecibo Observatory. This is the first survey of OHMs that included observations of the OH satellite lines; only four of the 77 OHMs have existing satellite line observations in the literature. Satellite line emission is detected in five sources, three of which are redetections of previously published sources. The two sources with new detections of satellite line emission are IRAS F10173+0829, which was detected at 1720 MHz, and IRAS F15107+0724, for which both the 1612 MHz and 1720 MHz lines were detected. In IRAS F15107+0724, the satellite lines are partially conjugate, as 1720 MHz absorption and 1612 MHz emission have the same structure at some velocities within the source, along with additional broader 1612 MHz emission. This is the first observed example of conjugate satellite lines in an OHM. In the remaining sources, no satellite line emission is observed. The detections and upper limits are generally consistent with models of OHM emission in which all of the 18 cm OH lines have the same excitation temperature. There is no evidence for a significant population of strong satellite line emitters among OHMs.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-13-2013
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/774/1/35
Funding Information
This research was supported in part by NSF grant AST-0908572. J.M. received support from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. This research used NASA's Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services, the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France, and the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Related Content
Repository Citation
McBride, James; Heiles, Carl; and Elitzur, Moshe, "Constraints on OH Megamaser Excitation from a Survey of OH Satellite Lines" (2013). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 189.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/189
Notes/Citation Information
Published in The Astrophysical Journal, v. 774, no. 1, 35, p. 1-8.
© 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
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