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G34.26+0.15 is a region of high-mass star formation that contains a broad range of young stellar objects in different stages of evolution, including a hot molecular core, hyper-compact HII regions and a prototypical cometary ultra-compact HII region. Previous high-sensitivity single dish observations by our group resulted in the detection of broad 6035 MHz OH absorption in this region; the line showed a significant blue-shifted asymmetry indicative of molecular gas expansion. We present high-sensitivity Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the 6035 MHz OH line conducted to image the absorption and investigate its origin with respect to the different star formation sites in the region. In addition, we report detection of 6030 MHz OH absorption with the VLA and further observations of 4.7 GHz and 6.0 GHz OH lines obtained with the Arecibo Telescope. The 6030 MHz OH line shows a very similar absorption profile as the 6035 MHz OH line. We found that the 6035 MHz OH line absorption region is spatially unresolved at $\sim 2$" scales, and it is coincident with one of the bright ionized cores of the cometary HII region that shows broad radio recombination line emission. We discuss a scenario where the OH absorption is tracing the remnants of a pole-on molecular outflow that is being ionized inside-out by the ultra-compact HII region., Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

The study of the interaction between ionized jets, molecular outflows and their environments is critical to understanding high-mass star formation, especially because jets and outflows are thought to be key in the transfer of angular momentum outwards from accretion disks. We report a low-spectral resolution VLA survey for hydrogen radio recombination lines, OH, NH$_3$, and CH$_3$OH lines toward a sample of 58 high-mass star forming regions that contain numerous ionized jet candidates. The observations are from a survey designed to detect radio continuum; the novel aspect of this work is to search for spectral lines in broadband VLA data (we provide the script developed in this work to facilitate exploration of other datasets). We report detection of 25$\,$GHz CH$_3$OH transitions toward ten sources; five of them also show NH$_3$ emission. We found that most of the sources detected in CH$_3$OH and NH$_3$ have been classified as ionized jets or jet candidates and that the emission lines are coincident with, or very near ($\lesssim 0.1$ pc) these sources, hence, these molecular lines could be used as probes of the environment near the launching site of jets/outflows. No radio recombination lines were detected, but we found that the RMS noise of stacked spectra decreases following the radiometer equation. Therefore, detecting radio recombination lines in a sample of brighter free-free continuum sources should be possible. This work demonstrates the potential of broadband VLA continuum observations as low-resolution spectral line scans., Comment: 38 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

We present Very Large Array C, X, and Q-band continuum observations, as well as 1.3 mm continuum and CO(2-1) observations with the Submillimeter Array toward the high-mass protostellar candidate ISOSS J23053+5953 SMM2. Compact cm continuum emission was detected near the center of the SMM2 core with a spectral index of 0.24 between 6 and 3.6 cm, and a radio luminosity of 1.3 mJy kpc$^2$. The 1.3 mm thermal dust emission indicates a mass of the SMM2 core of 45.8 Msun. The CO(2-1) observations reveal a large, massive molecular outflow centered on the SMM2 core. This fast outflow ($>$ 50 km/s from the cloud systemic velocity) is highly collimated, with a broader, lower-velocity component. The large values for outflow mass (45.2 Msun), and momentum rate (6 x 10$^{-3}$ Msun km/s/yr) derived from the CO emission are consistent with those of flows driven by high-mass YSOs. The dynamical timescale of the flow is between 1.5 - 7.2 x 10$^4$ yr. We also found from the C18O to thermal dust emission ratio that CO is depleted by a factor of about 20, possibly due to freeze out of CO molecules on dust grains. Our data are consistent with previous findings that ISOSS J23053+5953 SMM2 is an emerging high-mass protostar in an early phase of evolution, with an ionized jet, and a fast, highly collimated, and massive outflow., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Spectral lines from formaldehyde (H2CO) molecules at cm wavelengths are typically detected in absorption and trace a broad range of environments, from diffuse gas to giant molecular clouds. In contrast, thermal emission of formaldehyde lines at cm wavelengths is rare. In previous observations with the 100m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), we detected 2 cm formaldehyde emission toward NGC7538 IRS1 - a high-mass protostellar object in a prominent star-forming region of our Galaxy. We present further GBT observations of the 2 cm and 1 cm H2CO lines to investigate the nature of the 2 cm H2CO emission. We conducted observations to constrain the angular size of the 2 cm emission region based on a East-West and North-South cross-scan map. Gaussian fits of the spatial distribution in the East-West direction show a deconvolved size (at half maximum) of the 2 cm emission of 50" +/- 8". The 1 cm H2CO observations revealed emission superimposed on a weak absorption feature. A non-LTE radiative transfer analysis shows that the H2CO emission is consistent with quasi-thermal radiation from dense gas (~10^5 to 10^6 cm^-3). We also report detection of 4 transitions of CH3OH (12.2, 26.8, 28.3, 28.9 GHz), the (8,8) transition of NH3 (26.5 GHz), and a cross-scan map of the 13 GHz SO line that shows extended emission (> 50")., Comment: 16 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We report on one of the highest sensitivity surveys for molecular lines in the frequency range 6.0 to 7.4 GHz conducted to date. The observations were done with the 305m Arecibo Telescope toward a sample of twelve intermediate/high-mass star forming regions. We searched for a large number of transitions of different molecules, including CH3OH and OH. The low RMS noise of our data (~5 mJy for most sources and transitions) allowed detection of spectral features that have not been seen in previous lower sensitivity observations of the sources, such as detection of excited OH and 6.7 GHz CH3OH absorption. A review of 6.7 GHz CH3OH detections indicates an association between absorption and radio continuum sources in high-mass star forming regions, although selection biases in targeted projects and low sensitivity of blind surveys imply incompleteness. Absorption of excited OH transitions was also detected toward three sources. In particular, we confirm a broad 6.035 GHz OH absorption feature in G34.26+0.15 characterized by an asymmetric blue-shifted wing indicative of expansion, perhaps a large scale outflow in this HII region., Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We observed radio recombination lines (RRLs) toward the W51 molecular cloud complex, one of the most active star forming regions in our Galaxy. The UV radiation from young massive stars ionizes gas surrounding them to produce HII regions. Observations of the W51 IRS1 HII region were made with the Arecibo 305 m telescope. Of the full 1-10 GHz database, we have analyzed the observations between 4.5 and 5 GHz here. The steps involved in the analysis were: a) bandpass calibration using on-source/off-source observations; b) flux density calibration; c) removing spectral baselines due to errors in bandpass calibration and d) Gaussian fitting of the detected lines. We detected alpha, beta and gamma transitions of hydrogen and alpha transitions of helium. We used the observed line parameters to 1) measure the source velocity (56.6 $\pm$ 0.3 km s$^{-1}$) with respect to the Local Standard of Rest (LSR); 2) estimate the electron temperature (8500 $\pm$ 1800 K) of the HII region and 3) derive the emission measure (5.4 $\pm$ 2.7 $\times$ 10$^{6}$ pc cm$^{-6}$) of the ionized gas., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, To appear in ASPCS Vol. 525, "2020 Compendium of Undergraduate Research in Astronomy and Space Science'', Joseph B. Jensen, Jonathan Barnes, and Beth Wardell, eds. (2020)

Jets and outflows are ubiquitous phenomena in astrophysics, found in our Galaxy in diverse environments, from the formation of stars to late-type stellar objects. We present observations conducted with the 305m Arecibo Telescope of the pre-planetary nebula CRL 618 (Westbrook Nebula) - a well studied late-type star that has developed bipolar jets. The observations resulted in the first detection of 4765 MHz OH in a late-type stellar object. The line was narrow (FWHM ~ 0.6 km/s) and ~40 km/s blueshifted with respect to the systemic velocity, which suggests association with the expanding jets/bullets in CRL 618. We also report non-detection at Arecibo of any other OH transition between 1 and 9 GHz. The non-detections were obtained during the observations in 2008, when the 4765 MHz OH line was first discovered, and also in 2015 when the 4765 MHz OH line was not detected. Our data indicate that the 4765 MHz OH line was a variable maser. Modeling of the 4765 MHz OH detection and non-detection of the other transitions is consistent with the physical conditions expected in CRL 618. The 4765 MHz OH maser could originate from dissociation of H2O by shocks after sublimation of icy objects in this dying carbon-rich stellar system, although other alternatives such as OH in an oxygen-rich circumstellar region associated with a binary companion are also possible., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures

In this study we analyze 70 radio continuum sources associated with dust clumps and considered to be candidates for the earliest stages of high-mass star formation. The detection of these sources was reported by Rosero et al. (2016), who found most of them to show weak (${\scriptstyle <}$1 mJy) and compact (${\scriptstyle <}\,$0.6$^{\prime \prime}$) radio emission. Herein, we used the observed parameters of these sources to investigate the origin of the radio continuum emission. We found that at least $\sim 30\%$ of these radio detections are most likely ionized jets associated with high-mass protostars, but for the most compact sources we cannot discard the scenario that they represent pressure-confined HII regions. This result is highly relevant for recent theoretical models based on core accretion that predict the first stages of ionization from high-mass stars to be in the form of jets. Additionally, we found that properties such as the radio luminosity as a function of the bolometric luminosity of ionized jets from low and high-mass stars are extremely well-correlated. Our data improve upon previous studies by providing further evidence of a common origin for jets independently of luminosity., Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ

We present results of a multi-epoch monitoring program on variability of 6$\,$cm formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) masers in the massive star forming region NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1 from 2008 to 2015 conducted with the GBT, WSRT, and VLA. We found that the similar variability behaviors of the two formaldehyde maser velocity components in NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1 (which was pointed out by Araya and collaborators in 2007) have continued. The possibility that the variability is caused by changes in the maser amplification path in regions with similar morphology and kinematics is discussed. We also observed 12.2$\,$GHz methanol and 22.2$\,$GHz water masers toward NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1. The brightest maser components of CH$_3$OH and H$_2$O species show a decrease in flux density as a function of time. The brightest H$_2$CO maser component also shows a decrease in flux density and has a similar LSR velocity to the brightest H$_2$O and 12.2$\,$GHz CH$_3$OH masers. The line parameters of radio recombination lines and the 20.17 and 20.97$\,$GHz CH$_3$OH transitions in NGC$\,$7538$\,$IRS$\,$1 are also reported. In addition, we observed five other 6$\,$cm formaldehyde maser regions. We found no evidence of significant variability of the 6$\,$cm masers in these regions with respect to previous observations, the only possible exception being the maser in G29.96$-$0.02. All six sources were also observed in the H$_2^{13}$CO isotopologue transition of the 6$\,$cm H$_2$CO line; H$_2^{13}$CO absorption was detected in five of the sources. Estimated column density ratios [H$_2^{12}$CO]/[H$_2^{13}$CO] are reported., Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures

We report 3 mm continuum, CH3CN(5-4) and 13CS(2-1) line observations with CARMA, in conjunction with 6 and 1.3 cm continuum VLA data, and 12 and 25 micron broadband data from the Subaru Telescope toward the massive proto-star IRAS18566+0408. The VLA data resolve the ionized jet into 4 components aligned in the E-W direction. Radio components A, C, and D have flat cm SEDs indicative of optically thin emission from ionized gas, and component B has a spectral index alpha = 1.0, and a decreasing size with frequency proportional to frequency to the -0.5 power. Emission from the CARMA 3 mm continuum, and from the 13CS(2-1), and CH3CN(5-4) spectral lines is compact (i.e. < 6700 AU), and peaks near the position of VLA cm source, component B. Analysis of these lines indicates hot, and dense molecular gas, typical for HMCs. Our Subaru telescope observations detect a single compact source, coincident with radio component B, demonstrating that most of the energy in IRAS18566+0408 originates from a region of size < 2400 AU. We also present UKIRT near-infrared archival data for IRAS18566+0408 which show extended K-band emission along the jet direction. We detect an E-W velocity shift of about 10 km/sec over the HMC in the CH3CN lines possibly tracing the interface of the ionized jet with the surrounding core gas. Our data demonstrate the presence of an ionized jet at the base of the molecular outflow, and support the hypothesis that massive protostars with O-type luminosity form with a mechanism similar to lower mass stars.

We present a high sensitivity radio continuum survey at 6 and 1.3$\,$cm using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array towards a sample of 58 high-mass star forming regions. Our sample was chosen from dust clumps within infrared dark clouds with and without IR sources (CMC-IRs, CMCs, respectively), and hot molecular cores (HMCs), with no previous, or relatively weak radio continuum detection at the $1\,$mJy level. Due to the improvement in the continuum sensitivity of the VLA, this survey achieved map rms levels of $\sim$ 3-10 $\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$ at sub-arcsecond angular resolution. We extracted 70 centimeter continuum sources associated with 1.2$\,$mm dust clumps. Most sources are weak, compact, and are prime candidates for high-mass protostars. Detection rates of radio sources associated with the mm dust clumps for CMCs, CMC-IRs and HMCs are 6$\%$, 53$\%$ and 100$\%$, respectively. This result is consistent with increasing high-mass star formation activity from CMCs to HMCs. The radio sources located within HMCs and CMC-IRs occur close to the dust clump centers with a median offset from it of 12,000$\,$AU and 4,000$\,$AU, respectively. We calculated 5 - 25$\,$GHz spectral indices using power law fits and obtain a median value of 0.5 (i.e., flux increasing with frequency), suggestive of thermal emission from ionized jets. In this paper we describe the sample, observations, and detections. The analysis and discussion will be presented in Paper II., Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJS

We present an interferometric survey of the 44 GHz class I methanol maser transition toward a sample of 69 sources consisting of High Mass Protostellar Object candidates and Ultracompact (UC) H II regions. We found a 38% detection rate (16 of 42) in the HMPO candidates and a 54% detection rate (13 of 24) for the regions with ionized gas. This result indicates that class I methanol maser emission is more common toward more evolved young stellar objects of our sample. Comparing with similar interferometric data sets, our observations show narrower linewidths, likely due to our higher spatial resolution. Based on a comparison between molecular outflow tracers and the maser positions, we find several cases where the masers appear to be located at the outflow interface with the surrounding core. Unlike previous surveys, we also find several cases where the masers appear to be located close to the base of the molecular outflow, although we can not discard projection effects. This and other surveys of class I methanol masers not only suggest that these masers may trace shocks at different stages, but may even trace shocks arising from a number of different phenomena occurring in star-forming regions: young/old outflows, cloud-cloud collisions, expanding H II regions, among others., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement

We report 1.3 cm and 6 cm continuum observations toward the massive proto-stellar candidate G11.11-0.12P1 using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). We detect a string of four unresolved radio continuum sources coincident with the mid-IR source in G11P1. The continuum sources have positive spectral indices consistent with a thermal (free-free) ionized jet. The most likely origin of the ionized gas are shocks due to the interaction of a stellar wind with the surrounding high-density material. We also present NIR United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) archival data which show an extended structure detected only at K-band (2.2 $\mu$m), which is oriented perpendicular to the jet, and that may be scattered light from a circumstellar disk around the massive protostar. Our observations plus the UKIRT archival data thus provide new evidence that a disk/jet system is present in the massive protostellar candidate located in the G11.11-0.12P1 core., Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ; 5 figures

We present new Very Large Array 6cm H2CO observations toward four extragalactic radio continuum sources (B0212+735, 3C111, NRAO150, BL Lac) to explore the structure of foreground Galactic clouds as revealed by absorption variability. This project adds a new epoch in the monitoring observations of the sources reported by Marscher and collaborators in the mid 1990's. Our new observations confirm the monotonic increase in H$_2$CO absorption strength toward NRAO150. We do not detect significant variability of our 2009 spectra with respect to the 1994 spectra of 3C111, B0212+735 and BL Lac; however we find significant variability of the 3C111 2009 spectrum with respect to archive observations conducted in 1991 and 1992. Our analysis supports that changes in absorption lines could be caused by chemical and/or geometrical gradients in the foreground clouds, and not necessarily by small scale (~10 AU) high density molecular clumps within the clouds., Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures

Maser lines from different molecular species, including water, hydroxyl, and methanol, are common observational phenomena associated with massive star forming regions. In particular, the methanol maser appears as an ideal tool to study the early phases of massive star formation. However, it is difficult to establish the exact start of the methanol maser phase, and it would then be interesting to detect and study low-flux density methanol masers (i.e., < 0.1 Jy or even << 0.1 Jy), in order to determine if they can effectively be used to mark a specific evolutionary phase in high-mass star formation. Past surveys have been unable to systematically detect many low-flux density methanol masers, and thus we do not yet know how many such masers exist in the Galaxy and what is their physical nature. Out of a sample of 107 observed Hi-GAL sources we detected a total of 32 methanol masers, with 22 sources being new and weak (median peak flux density 0.07 Jy) detections, in the Galactic longitude range [32.0, 59.8]deg. We also detected 12 6.035-GHz OH maser, with 9 objects being new detections. Our survey covers a similar range of source distances as the "Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey", but the methanol masers detected by us are clearly shifted towards lower integrated flux densities. The newly detected methanol masers are mostly of low-luminosity and, except for some sources, their weakness is not due to distance effects or positional offsets. No specific correlation is found with the physical parameters of the Hi-GAL clumps, except for sources with both CH3OH and OH masers which tend to have higher mass and luminosity. The intensity of the methanol masers correlates well with the velocity range of the maser emission, which suggests that the low brightness of these masers is related to the number of maser spots in the emitting region and their evolution with time., Comment: This paper contains a total of 14 figures and 7 tables. Submitted for publication to A&A on November 4th, 2013

We report the results of a survey in the CH3CN J= 12-11 transition toward a sample of massive proto-stellar candidates. The observations were carried out with the 10 m Submillimeter telescope on Mount Graham, AZ. We detected this molecular line in 9 out of 21 observed sources. In six cases this is the first detection of this transition. We also obtained full beam sampled cross-scans for five sources which show that the lower K-components can be extended on the arcminute angular scale. The higher K-components however are always found to be compact with respect to our 36" beam. A Boltzmann population diagram analysis of the central spectra indicates CH3CN column densities of about 10^14 cm^(-2), and rotational temperatures above 50 K, which confirms these sources as hot molecular cores. Independent fits to line velocity and width for the individual K-components resulted in the detection of an increasing blue shift with increasing line excitation for four sources. Comparison with mid-infrared images from the SPITZER GLIMPSE/IRAC archive for six sources show that the CH3CN emission is generally coincident with a bright mid-IR source. Our data clearly show that the CH3CN J= 12-11 transition is a good probe of the hot molecular gas near massive protostars, and provide the basis for future interferometric studies.

We report the discovery of 6.035GHz hydroxyl (OH) maser flares toward the massive star forming region IRAS18566+0408 (G37.55+0.20), which is the only region known to show periodic formaldehyde (4.8 GHz H2CO) and methanol (6.7 GHz CH3OH) maser flares. The observations were conducted between October 2008 and January 2010 with the 305m Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico. We detected two flare events, one in March 2009, and one in September to November 2009. The OH maser flares are not simultaneous with the H2CO flares, but may be correlated with CH3OH flares from a component at corresponding velocities. A possible correlated variability of OH and CH3OH masers in IRAS18566+0408 is consistent with a common excitation mechanism (IR pumping) as predicted by theory., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

We report results of an extensive observational campaign of the 6 cm formaldehyde maser in the young massive stellar object IRAS18566+0408 (G37.55+0.20) conducted from 2002 to 2009. Using Arecibo, VLA, and GBT, we discovered quasi-periodic formaldehyde flares (P ~ 237 days). Based on Arecibo observations, we also discovered correlated variability between formaldehyde (H2CO) and methanol (CH3OH) masers. The H2CO and CH3OH masers are not spatially coincident, as demonstrated by different line velocities and high angular resolution MERLIN observations. The flares could be caused by variations in the infrared radiation field, possibly modulated by periodic accretion onto a young binary system., Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

B2352+495 is a prototypical example of a Compact Symmetric Object (CSO). It has a double radio lobe symmetrically located with respect to a central flat spectrum radio core (the location of the AGN) and has a physical extent of less than 200 pc. In this work we report VLBA observation of 21 cm HI absorption toward B2352+495 to investigate the properties of this remarkable radio source, in particular, to explore whether the radio emission can be confined by circumnuclear material (frustration scenario) or whether the source is likely to be young. We confirmed the two HI absorption features previously detected toward B2352+495 - a broad line nearly centered at the systemic velocity of the galaxy and a narrow redshifted component. The atomic gas from the broad absorption component is likely associated with circumnuclear material, consistent with the current paradigm of clumpy HI distribution in toroidal structures around supermassive black holes., Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal

We report the results of our third survey for formaldehyde (H2CO) 6cm maser emission in the Galaxy. Using the Very Large Array, we detected two new H2CO maser sources (G23.01-0.41 and G25.83-0.18), thus increasing the sample of known H2CO maser regions in the Galaxy to seven. We review the characteristics of the G23.01-0.41 and G25.83-0.18 star forming regions. The H2CO masers in G23.01-0.41 and G25.83-0.18 share several properties with the other known H2CO masers, in particular, emission from rich maser environments and close proximity to very young massive stellar objects., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series