SiO Maser Survey toward the Inner Galactic Disk: 40 < l < 70 and |b| < 10

We present the results of an SiO maser survey for color-selected IRAS sources in the area 40 < l < 70 and |b| < 10 in the SiO J=1-0, v=1 and 2 transitions. We detected 134 out of 272 observed sources in SiO masers; 127 were new detections. A systematic difference in the detection rates between SiO and OH maser searches was found. Especially, in the color ranges with log(F_{25}/F_{12}) smaller than -0.1, the detection rate of the SiO masers is significantly higher than that of OH masers. We found a possible kinematic influence of the galactic arm on the distribution of SiO maser sources. It was found that the velocity dispersion of SiO maser sources tends to decrease with the galactocentric distance. Using the present and previous data of SiO maser surveys, we found that the local velocity gradient of the rotational velocity of the Galaxy is consistent with the values obtained from other kinds of disk population stars within a statistical uncertainty. The Oort's constants, "A" and "B", were computed from the gradient of the rotation curve for the present data, and were consistent with the IAU standard values. In addition, in order to check the reliability of IRAS positions, we observed toward the MSX positions for 5 MSX counterparts, which are located more than 20" away (but within 60") from IRAS positions. We detected all of these 5 sources in SiO masers.Comment: 45 pages, 11 figures, accepted by PASJ. Version with full resolution figures is available from http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/library/report/list.htm

SiO Maser Survey off the Galactic Plane: A Signature of Streaming Motion

A group of Mira variables in the solar neighborhood show unusual spatial motion in the Galaxy. To study this motion in a much larger scale in the Galaxy, we newly surveyed 134 evolved stars off the Galactic plane by SiO maser lines, obtaining accurate radial velocities of 84 detected stars. Together with the past data of SiO maser sources, we analyzed the radial velocity data of a large sample of sources distributing in a distance range of about 0.3 -- 6 kpc in the first Galactic quadrant. At the Galactic longitudes between 20 and 40 deg, we found a group of stars with large negative radial velocities, which deviate by more than 100 km s^{-1} from the Galactic rotation. We show that these deviant motions of maser stars are created by periodic gravitational perturbation of the Bulge bar, and that the effect appears most strongly at radii between corotation and outer Lindblad resonances. The resonance effect can explain the displacement of positions from the Galactic plane as well.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, PASJ, 62. No. 3 in press high resolution figures available from http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~lib_pub/report/data/no675.pd

Mechanisms for the circular polarization of astrophysical OH masers in star-forming regions and the inferred magnetic fields

Results of further calculations to explore the cause for the circular polarization of astrophysical OH masers in regions of star formation are presented. Calculations are given for both the nonlinear, Zeeman overlap mechanishm, and the Cook mechanism. The previous result that magnetic field strengths of a few milligauss or greater are required, still survives

SiO maser observations of a wide dust-temperature range sample

We present the results of SiO line observations of a sample of known SiO maser sources covering a wide dust-temperature range. The aim of the present research is to investigate the causes of the correlation between infrared colors and SiO maser intensity ratios among different transition lines. We observed in total 75 SiO maser sources with the Nobeyama 45m telescope quasi-simultaneously in the SiO J=1-0 v=0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and J=2-1 v=1, 2 lines. We also observed the sample in the 29SiO J=1-0 v=0 and J=2-1 v=0, and 30SiO J=1-0 v=0 lines, and the H2O 6(1,6)-5(2,3) line. As reported in previous papers, we confirmed that the intensity ratios of the SiO J=1-0 v=2 to v=1 lines clearly correlate with infrared colors. In addition, we found possible correlation between infrared colors and the intensity ratios of the SiO J=1-0 v=3 to v=1&2 lines.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, iaus.cls, to appear in IAU Symp. 242 proceedings (Astrophysical masers and their environments

HOCO+ toward the Galactic Center

We have identified a weak thermal line U42.767, which has been detected only in the directions toward Sgr A and Sgr B2, as the HOCO+ 2_{02}--1_{01} transition. Because of the proximity of this line to the SiO maser line at 42.821 GHz (J=1-0 v=2),it was observable simultaneously in the ~43 GHz SiO maser searches at Nobeyama. From the past data of SiO maser surveys of infrared objects in the Galactic center, we created a map of emission distribution of HOCO+ in the Sgr A molecular cloud as well as maps of the 29SiO J=1-0 v=0 thermal emission and H53alpha emission. The emission distribution of HOCO+ was quite similar to the distribution of 29SiO emission. It suggests that the enhancement of the HOCO+ abundance in the galactic center is induced by shock activities which release the CO2 molecules frozen on grains into gases.Comment: PASJ Dec. 25, 2006 issue in pres

Observations of SiO Maser Sources within a Few Parsec from the Galactic Center

Mapping and monitoring observations of SiO maser sources near the Galactic center were made with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope at 43 GHz. Rectangular mapping an area of approximately 200'' x 100''$ in a 30'' grid, and triangular mapping in a 20'' grid toward the Galactic center, resulted in 15 detections of SiO sources; the positions of the sources were obtained with errors of 5--10'', except for a few weak sources. Three-year monitoring observations found that the component at V_lsr=-27 km/s of IRS 10 EE flared to about 1.5 Jy during 2000 March--May, which was a factor of more than 5 brighter than its normal intensity. Using the radial velocities and positions of the SiO sources, we identified 5 which are counterparts of previously observed OH 1612 MHz sources. The other 10 SiO sources have no OH counterparts, but two were previously detected with VLA, and four are located close to the positions of large-amplitude variables observed at near-infrared wavelengths. A least-squares fit to a plot of velocities versus Galactic longitudes gives a rather high speed for the rotation of the star cluster around the Galactic center. The observed radial-velocity dispersion is roughly consistent with a value obtained before. It was found that all of the SiO sources with OH 1612 MHz counterparts have periods of light variation longer than 450 days, while SiO sources without OH masers often have periods shorter than 450 days. This fact suggests that lower-mass AGB stars are more often detected in SiO masers than in the OH 1612 MHz line.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. PASJ 54, No. 1 (2002) in pres

A Search for Water Masers in the Saturnian System

We searched for H2O 6(1,6)-5(2,3) maser emission at 22.235 GHz from several Saturnian satellites with the Nobeyama 45m radio telescope in May 2009. Observations were made for Titan, Hyperion, Enceladus and Atlas, for which Pogrebenko et al. (2009) had reported detections of water masers at 22.235 GHz, and in addition for Iapetus and other inner satellites. We detected no emission of the water maser line for all the satellites observed, although sensitivities of our observations were comparable or even better than those of Pogrebenko et al.. We infer that the water maser emission from the Saturnian system is extremely weak, or sporadic in nature. Monitoring over a long period and obtaining statistical results must be made for the further understanding of the water maser emission in the Saturnian system.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (Letter

Detection of Bipolar Flow toward an Unusual SiO Maser Source IRAS 19312+1950

We report a result of an interferometric observation toward an SiO maser source, IRAS 19312+1950, in the HCO+ J=1-0 line with the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland-Association (BIMA) Millimeter Array. In the spatially integrated spectrum of HCO+, two kinematic components were seen: a strong line with a narrow width (~2 km/s, narrow component), and a weak symmetric line with a broad width (~60 km/s, broad component). The line profile of HCO+ are reminiscent of that of CO. In the integrated intensity map, we found a pronounced bipolar shape consisting of lower-velocity parts of the broad component. The higher-velocity part of the broad component originated in a relatively small region (< 3"). The spatial structure of the narrow component clearly correlated with near-infrared structure. The position-velocity diagrams indicated presence of a bipolar outflow with an expansion velocity of about 10 km/s. On the basis of the present results, we suggest that the nature of the bipolar flow seen in IRAS 19312+1950 is explained by hydrodynamical interaction between an AGB wind and ambient material with axial symmetric structure.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Detections of SiO and H2_2O Masers in the Bipolar Nebula IRAS 19312+1950

We report on the detection of SiO and water masers toward a newly found bipolar nebula, IRAS 19312+1950. This object exhibits extreme red IRAS color log (F25/F12)=0.5 and log (F60/F25)=0.7 and a nebulosity having a size of about 30" extended to the South-West in the 2MASS near-infrared image. Toward this object, we have detected emission from the H2O 6(1,6)-5(2,3) transition, the SiO J=1-0, v=1 and 2, and J=2-1, v=1 transitions, and the SO 2(2)--1(1) and H13CN J=1-0 transitions. The thermal lines of SO and H13CN are shifted by about 12 km/s in radial velocity with respect to the maser lines, indicating that thermal emission comes from the background molecular cloud. However, the SiO J=2-1, v=2 spectrum shows another component of SiO emission separated by 26 km/s from the main component, that might be formed in a rotating or expanding shell.Comment: 5 peges including 1 table, and 2 jpeg figures. Accepted for PASJ (Publication of the Astronomical Society of Japan