Aspherical Explosion Models for SN 1998bw/GRB 980425

The recent discovery of the unusual supernova SN1998bw and its apparent correlation with the gamma-ray burst GRB 980425 has raised new issues concerning both the GRB and supernovae. Although the spectra resemble those of TypeIc supernovae, there are distinct differences at early times and SN1998bw appeared to be unusually bright and red at maximum light. The apparent expansion velocities inferred by the Doppler shift of (unidentified) absorption features appeared to be high, making SN1998bw a possible candidate for a "hypernova" with explosion energies between 20 and 50E51 erg and ejecta masses in excess of 6 - 15 M_o. Based on light curve calculations for aspherical explosions and guided by the polarization observations of "normal" SNIc and related events, we present an alternative picture that allows SN1998bw to have an explosion energy and ejecta mass consistent with core collapse supernovae (although at the 'bright' end). We show that the LC of SN1998bw can be understood as result of an aspherical explosion along the rotational axis of a basically spherical, non-degenerate C/O core of massive star with an explosion energy of 2foe and a total ejecta mass of 2 M_o if it is seen from high inclinations with respect to the plane of symmetry. In this model, the high expansion velocities are a direct consequence of an aspherical explosion which, in turn, produces oblate iso-density contours. It suggests that the fundamental core-collapse explosion process itself is strongly asymmetric.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, latex, aas2pp4.sty, submitted to Ap

Methanol in W3(H2O) and Surrounding Regions

We present the results of an interferometric study of 38 millimeter-wave lines of CH3OH in the region around the water maser source W3(H2O) and a region extending about 30" to the south and west of the hydroxyl maser source W3(OH). The methanol emitting region around W3(H2O) has an extent of 2.0" x 1.2" (4400 x 2600 AU). The density is of order 1.e7 cm-3, sufficient to thermalize most of the methanol lines. The kinetic temperature is approximately 140 K and the methanol fractional abundance greater than 1.e-6, indicative of a high degree of grain mantle evaporation. The W3(H2O) source contains sub-structure, with peaks corresponding to the TW source and Wyrowski's B/C, separated by 2500 AU in projection. The kinematics are consistent with these being distinct protostellar cores in a wide binary orbit and a dynamical mass for the region of a few tens of Mo. The extended methanol emission to the southwest of W3(OH) is seen strongly only from the lowest excitation lines and from lines known elsewhere to be class I methanol masers, namely the 84.5 GHz 5(-1)-4(0)E and 95.2 GHz 8(0)-7(1)A+ lines. Within this region there are two compact clumps, which we denote as swA and swB, each about 15" (0.16 pc projected distance) away from W3(OH). Excitation analysis of these clumps indicates the presence of lines with inverted populations but only weak amplification. The sources swA and swB appear to have kinetic temperatures of order 50-100 K and densities of order 1.e5 - 1.e6 cm-3. The methanol fractional abundance for the warmer clump is of order 1.e-7, suggestive of partial grain mantle evaporation. The clumping occurs on mass scales of order 1 Mo.Comment: 28 pages including 6 figures and 4 tables, accepted by Ap

Multi-transition study and new detections of class II methanol masers

We have used the ATNF Mopra antenna and the SEST antenna to search in the directions of several class II methanol maser sources for emission from six methanol transitions in the frequency range 85-115 GHz. The transitions were selected from excitation studies as potential maser candidates. Methanol emission at one or more frequencies was detected from five of the maser sources, as well as from Orion KL. Although the lines are weak, we find evidence of maser origin for three new lines in G345.01+1.79, and possibly one new line in G9.62+0.20. The observations, together with published maser observations at other frequencies, are compared with methanol maser modelling for G345.01+1.79 and NGC6334F. We find that the majority of observations in both sources are consistent with a warm dust (175 K) pumping model at hydrogen density ~10^6 cm^-3 and methanol column density ~5 x 10^17 cm^-2. The substantial differences between the maser spectra in the two sources can be attributed to the geometry of the maser region.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

How do methanol masers manage to appear in the youngest star vicinities and isolated molecular clumps?

General characteristics of methanol (CH3OH) maser emission are summarized. It is shown that methanol maser sources are concentrated in the spiral arms. Most of the methanol maser sources from the Perseus arm are associated with embedded stellar clusters and a considerable portion is situated close to compact HII regions. Almost 1/3 of the Perseus Arm sources lie at the edges of optically identified HII regions which means that massive star formation in the Perseus Arm is to a great extent triggered by local phenomena. A multiline analysis of the methanol masers allows us to determine the physical parameters in the regions of maser formation. Maser modelling shows that class II methanol masers can be pumped by the radiation of the warm dust as well as by free-free emission of a hypercompact region hcHII with a turnover frequency exceeding 100 GHz. Methanol masers of both classes can reside in the vicinity of hcHIIs. Modelling shows that periodic changes of maser fluxes can be reproduced by variations of the dust temperature by a few percent which may be caused by variations in the brightness of the central young stellar object reflecting the character of the accretion process. Sensitive observations have shown that the masers with low flux densities can still have considerable amplification factors. The analysis of class I maser surveys allows us to identify four distinct regimes that differ by the series of their brightest lines.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, invited presentation at IAU242 "Astrophysical Masers and their environments

A search for 85.5- and 86.6-GHz methanol maser emission

We have used the Australia Telescope National Facility Mopra 22m millimetre telescope to search for emission from the 85.5-GHz and 86.6-GHz transitions of methanol. The search was targeted towards 22 star formation regions which exhibit maser emission in the 107.0-GHz methanol transition, as well as in the 6.6-GHz transition characteristic of class II methanol maser sources. A total of 22 regions were searched at 85.5 GHz resulting in 5 detections, of which 1 appears to be a newly discovered maser. For the 86.6-GHz transition observations were made of 18 regions which yielded 2 detections, but no new maser sources. This search demonstrates that emission from the 85.5- and 86.6-GHz transitions is rare. Detection of maser emission from either of these transitions therefore indicates the presence of special conditions, different from those in the majority of methanol maser sources. We have observed temporal variability in the 86.6-GHz emission towards 345.010+1.792, which along with the very narrow line width, confirms that the emission is a maser in this source. We have combined our current observations with published data for the 6.6-, 12.1-, 85.5-, 86.6-, 107.0-, 108.8- and 156.6-GHz transitions for comparison with the maser model of Sobolev & Deguchi (1994). This has allowed us to estimate the likely ranges of dust temperature, gas density, and methanol column density, both for typical methanol maser sources and for those sources which also show 107.0-GHz emission.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS, Latex, mn2e.cl

Vertical Structure of the Outer Accretion Disk in Persistent Low-Mass X-Ray Binaries

We have investigated the influence of X-ray irradiation on the vertical structure of the outer accretion disk in low-mass X-ray binaries by performing a self-consistent calculation of the vertical structure and X-ray radiation transfer in the disk. Penetrating deep into the disk, the field of scattered X-ray photons with energy $E\gtrsim10$\,keV exerts a significant influence on the vertical structure of the accretion disk at a distance $R\gtrsim10^{10}$\,cm from the neutron star. At a distance $R\sim10^{11}$\,cm, where the total surface density in the disk reaches $\Sigma_0\sim20$\,g\,cm$^{-2}$, X-ray heating affects all layers of an optically thick disk. The X-ray heating effect is enhanced significantly in the presence of an extended atmospheric layer with a temperature $T_{atm}\sim(2\div3)\times10^6$\,K above the accretion disk. We have derived simple analytic formulas for the disk heating by scattered X-ray photons using an approximate solution of the transfer equation by the Sobolev method. This approximation has a $\gtrsim10$\,% accuracy in the range of X-ray photon energies $E<20$\,keV.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, published in Astronomy Letter