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We present results on simultaneous observations of Class~I methanol masers at 25, 36, and 44 GHz towards 22 Galactic targets carried out with the Effelsberg 100-m telescope. The study investigates relations between the hyperfine (HF) structure of the torsion-rotation transitions in CH3OH and maser activity. By analyzing the radial velocity shifts between different maser lines together with the patterns of the HF structure based on laboratory measurements and quantum-chemical calculations, we find that in any source only one specific HF transition forms the maser emission and that this transition changes from source to source. The physical conditions leading to this selective behavior are still unclear. Using accurate laboratory rest frequencies for the 25 GHz transitions, we have refined the centre frequencies for the HF multiplets at 36, 44, and 95 GHz: f_36 = (36169.2488 +/- 0.0002_stat +/- 0.0004_sys) MHz. f_44 = (44069.4176 +/- 0.0002_stat +/- 0.0004_sys) MHz, and f_95 = (95169.4414 +/- 0.0003_stat +/- 0.0004_sys) MHz. Comparison with previous observations of 44 GHz masers performed 6-10 years ago with a Korean 21-m KVN telescope towards the same targets confirms the kinematic stability of Class~I maser line profiles during this time interval and reveals a systematic radial velocity shift of 0.013 +/- 0.005 km/s between the two telescopes., Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS

The massive young stellar object (MYSO) G358.93-0.03-MM1 showed an extraordinary near-infrared- to (sub-)millimetre-dark and far-infrared-loud accretion burst, which is closely associated with flares of several class II methanol maser transitions, and, later, a 22 GHz water maser flare. Water maser flares provide an invaluable insight into ejection events associated with accretion bursts. Although the short timescale of the 22 GHz water maser flare made it impossible to carry out a very long baseline interferometry observation, we could track it with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). The evolution of the spatial structure of the 22 GHz water masers and their association with the continuum sources in the region is studied with the VLA during two epochs, pre- and post-H2O maser flare. A drastic change in the distribution of the water masers is revealed: in contrast to the four maser groups detected during epoch I, only two newly formed clusters are detected during epoch II. The 22 GHz water masers associated with the bursting source MM1 changed in morphology and emission velocity extent. Clear evidence of the influence of the accretion burst on the ejection from G358.93-0.03-MM1 is presented. The accretion event has also potentially affected a region with a radius of ~2'' (~13 500 AU at 6.75 kpc), suppressing water masers associated with other point sources in this region.

We present the most complete to date interferometric study of the centimeter wavelength methanol masers detected in G358.93-0.03 at the burst and post-burst epochs. A unique, NIR/(sub)mm-dark and FIR-loud MYSO accretion burst was recently discovered in G358.93-0.03. The event was accompanied by flares of an unprecedented number of rare methanol maser transitions. The first images of three of the newly-discovered methanol masers at 6.18, 12.23, and 20.97 GHz are presented in this work. The spatial structure evolution of the methanol masers at 6.67, 12.18, and 23.12 GHz is studied at two epochs. The maser emission in all detected transitions resides in a region of $\sim$0.2$^{\prime\prime}$ around the bursting source and shows a clear velocity gradient in the north-south direction, with red-shifted features to the north and blue-shifted features to the south. A drastic change in the spatial morphology of the masing region is found: a dense and compact "spiral" cluster detected at epoch I evolved into a disperse, "round" structure at epoch II. During the transition from the first epoch to the second, the region traced by masers expanded. The comparison of our results with the complementary VLA, VLBI, SMA, and ALMA maser data is conducted. The obtained methanol maser data support the hypothesis of the presence of spiral-arm structures within the accretion disk, which was suggested in previous studies of the source.

The source G25.65+1.05 (RAFGL7009S, IRAS 18316-0602) is the least studied of the three regions of massive star formation known to show exceptionally powerful H$_2$O maser bursts. We report spectral line observations of the H$_2$O maser at 22 GHz, the methanol maser transitions at 6.7, 12.2 and 44 GHz, and the continuum in these same frequency bands with The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) at the post-burst epoch of 2017. For the first time, maps of 22 GHz H$_2$O and 44 GHz CH$_3$OH maser spots are obtained and the absolute position of the 22 GHz H$_2$O bursting feature is determined with milliarcsecond precision. We detected four continuum components, three of which are closely spaced in a linear orientation, suggesting a physical link between them.

We report H$_2$O maser line observations of the bright-rimmed globule IC 1396 N using a ground-space interferometer with the 10-m RadioAstron radio telescope as the space-based element. The source was not detected on projected baselines >2.3 Earth diameters, which indicates a lower limit on the maser size of L >0.03 AU and an upper limit on the brightness temperature of 6.25 x 10$^{12}$ K. Positions and flux densities of maser spots were determined by fringe rate mapping. Multiple low-velocity features from -4.5 km/s to +0.7 km/s are seen, and two high-velocity features of V$_{LSR}$=-9.4 km/s and +4.4 km/s are found at projected distances of 157 AU and 70 AU, respectively, from the strongest low-velocity feature at V$_{LSR}$=$\sim$0.3 km/s. Maser components from the central part of the spectrum fall into four velocity groups but into three spatial groups. Three spatial groups of low-velocity features detected in the 2014 observations are arranged in a linear structure about 200 AU in length. Two of these groups were not detected in 1996 and possibly are jets which formed between 1996 and 2014. The putative jet seems to have changed direction in 18 years, which we explain by the precession of the jet under the influence of the gravity of material surrounding the globule. The jet collimation can be provided by a circumstellar protoplanetary disk. There is a straight line orientation in the V$_{LSR}$-Right Ascension diagram between the jet and the maser group at V$_{LSR}$=$\sim$0.3 km/s. However, the central group with the same position but at the velocity V$_{LSR}$$\sim$-3.4 km/s falls on a straight line between two high-velocity components detected in 2014. Comparison of the low-velocity positions from 2014 and 1996, based on the same diagram, shows that the majority of the masers maintain their positions near the central velocity V$_{LSR}$=$\sim$0.3 km/s during the 18 year period., Comment: 25 pages, 3 tables, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy Reports

The revised version of the class I methanol maser catalog is presented. It contains 198 sources - new class I methanol masers detected in the direction of EGOs were added to the previous number (~160 sources have been published in the first version of this catalog - see reference in the text). Electronic version has been generated in the form of html file - http://www.asc.rssi.ru/MMI A statistical analysis was carried out within 2' around a maser position to find an identification of class I methanol masers with any objects typical for star-forming regions - UCHII regions, IRAS sources, bipolar outflows, CS lines as of dense gas tracer, masers (class II methanol masers, OH and H2O) and EGO. None of the bipolar outflow, already registered in the direction of class I methanol maser, did not coincide with EGO. The result is submitted in a form of a diagram., Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure

We present results of a high resolution survey of OH masers in Galactic Star Forming Regions in order to study the maser emission and establish a list of suitable candidates for higher resolution instruments follow up. We used the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to observe the 1665, 1667, 1612 and 1720 MHz OH maser transitions within 41 regions. These are the first high resolution observations for most of the sources. For all the transitions 30 sites of maser emission were detected, 4 of the sources have new detections, and approximately 40% of the sources in the sample exhibit highly compact structure. Finally we consider that the spectrum observed in W75N shows the early stage of a long period OH maser flare in the 1665 MHz line, the first of its kind., Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure., To appear in the Proceedings of the "11th Latin American IAU Regional Meeting of Astronomy" LARIM2005, December 12-16 2005, Pucon, Chile; RevMexAst Conf Series

A flare of maser radio emission in the OH-line 1665 MHz has been discovered in the star forming region W75 N in 2003, with the flux density of about 1000 Jy. At the time it was the strongest OH maser detected during the whole history of observations since the discovery of cosmic masers in 1965. The flare emission is linearly polarized with a degree of polarization near 100%. A weaker flare with a flux of 145 Jy was observed in this source in 2000 - 2001, which was probably a precursor of the powerful flare. Intensity of two other spectral features has decreased after beginning of the flare. Such variation of the intensity of maser condensation emission (increasing of one and decreasing of the other) can be explained by passing of the magneto hydrodynamic shock across regions of enhanced gas concentration., Comment: 9 pages with 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy Letters

VLBA and EVN radio observations of H2O masers at 22 GHz and methanol masers at 6.7 GHz have been used to obtain images of the maser spots in the infrared object GL2789, which is associated with the young stellar object V645Cyg. The position of these masers coincides with that of the optical object to within 0.2 arcsec. The maser spots are located in a line oriented north--south, and their positions and radial velocities can be described by a model with a Keplerian disk with maximum radius 40 AU for the H2O masers and 800 AU for the methanol masers. The H2O and methanol masers spots are unresolved, and the lower limits for their brightness temperatures are 2x10^{13} K and 1.4x10^9 K, respectively. A model in which the maser radiation is formed in extended water-methanol clouds associated with ice planets forming around the young star is proposed., Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, published in Astronomy Reports

Radio images of maser spots in the infrared source GL2789, connected with the young stellar object V645 Cyg, have been obtained as a result of the radio interferometric observations of H2O maser at 22 GHz and methanol maser at 6.7 GHz, with the VLBI arrays VLBA and EVN. It was shown that the position of the masers coincide with the optical object within 0.2''. The maser spots are located along the line North-South, and their position and radial velocity can be described by a model of the Keplerian disk with a maximum radius of 40 AU for H2O maser and 800 AU for methanol maser. The H2O and methanol maser spots have not been resolved, and lower limits of the brightness temperature is 2x10^{13} K and 1.4x10^9 K, respectively. A model of the maser was suggested in which the maser emission is generated in extended water and methanol envelopes of icy planets orbiting the young star., Comment: Proceedings of the IAU Colloquium 187, 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 table; newpasp.sty is included

W75N is a star-forming region containing various ultracompact HII regions and OH, water, and methanol maser emission. Our VLBA map shows that the OH masers are located in a thin disk rotating around an O-star which is the exciting star of the ultracompact HII region VLA1. A separate set of maser spots is connected with the ultracompact HII region VLA2. The radial velocity of OH maser spots varies across the disk from 3.7 km/s to 10.9 km/s. The diameter of the disk is 4000 A.U. All maser spots are strongly polarized. This are the first OH masers showing nearly 100 per cent linear polarization in several spots. Two maser spots seem to be Zeeman pairs corresponding to a magnetic field of 5.2 mgauss and 7.7 mgauss, and in one case we tentatively found a Zeeman pair consisting of two linearly polarized components. The linearly polarized maser spots are shown to be sigma-components which is the case of the magnetic field being perpendicular to the line of sight. The direction of the magnetic field as determined from linearly polarized spots is perpendicular to the plane of the disk, although the galactic Faraday rotation may significantly affect this conclusion., Comment: 14 figures, 1 table, 27 pages. accepted for publication in ApJ, scheduled for v.564, N1, 2002

Fifty-one objects in the 5_{-1}-4_0E methanol line at 84.5 GHz were detected during a survey of Class I maser sources. Narrow maser features were found in 17 of these. Broad quasi-thermal lines were detected towards other sources. One of the objects with narrow features, the young bipolar outflow L 1157 was also observed in the 8_0-7_1A+ line at 95.2 GHz; a narrow line was detected at this frequency. Analysis showed that the broad lines are usually inverted. The quasi-thermal profiles imply that the line opacities are not larger than several units. These results confirm the plausibility of models in which compact Class I masers appear in extended sources as a result of an appropriate velocity field. Measurements of linear polarization at 84.5 GHz in 13 sources were made. No polarization was found except a tentative detection of a weak polarization in M 8E.

Results of a survey of Galactic star-forming regions in the lines of methanol 8_{-1}-7_0E at 229.8 GHz, 3_{-2}-4_{-1}E at 230.0 GHz, 0_0-1_{-1}E at 108.9 GHz, and a series of methanol lines J_1-J_0E near 165 GHz are presented. Two masers, DR 21(OH) and DR 21West, and two maser candidates, L 379IRS3 and NGC 6334I(N), as well as 16 thermal sources are found at 229.8 GHz. This is the first detection of methanol masers at a wavelength as short as 1 mm. At 108.9 GHz, masers were found towards G345.01+1.79 and probably, towards M 8E. Thermal emission is found towards 28 objects. Only thermal emission was found at 165 and 230.0 GHz (20 and 7 sources, respectively). The masers at 229.8 GHz belong to class I, whereas those at 108.9 GHz belong to class II, according to the classification by Menten (1991). The masers in DR 21(OH) and DR 21West can be roughly fitted by models with the gas kinetic temperature of the order of 50K. The detection of the 108.9 GHz masers towards G345.01+1.79 and M 8E may indicate on a specific geometry of these objects. The combination of the existence of the class II J_0-J_{-1}E masers towards W 3(OH), G345.01+1.79, W 48, and Cep A and our non-detection of the 3_{-2}-4_{-1}E and J_1-J_0E lines is an evidence that the class II masers in these objects are pumped by the radiation of hot dust rather than by that of UC HII-regions.

We studied class I methanol masers in the transition 7_0-6_1 A+ at the frequency 44 GHz with the VLA. The observations on the VLA were made with the angular resolution 0''.1, which was the highest at the moment. It was shown that the masers consist of chains of unresolved spots located on curved lines or arcs. The length of such arcs is from 20 to 1000 AU and the brightness temperature of the strongest masers exceeds 3.6x10^8 K. The observed location of maser spots is in agreement with their position at the border line between molecular outflows and surrounding molecular clouds. The high brightness temperature implies that the maser condensations have enhanced abundance of methanol due to evaporation of methanol from the surface of dust grains. The mass of maser condensations is less than 4x10^-5 solar mass and corresponds to planetary masses., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, proceedings of IAU206, newpasp.sty is included

We report on the first space-VLBI observations of the OH masers in two main-line OH transitions at 1665 and 1667 MHz. The observations involved the space radio telescope on board the Japanese satellite HALCA and an array of ground radio telescopes. The maps of the maser region and images of individual maser spots were produced with an angular resolution of 1 mas, which is several times higher than the angular resolution available on the ground. The maser spots were only partly resolved and a lower limit to the brightness temperature 6x10^12 K was obtained. The masers seem to be located in the direction of low interstellar scattering., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of IAU206, newpasp.sty is included

A southern hemisphere survey of methanol emission sources has been carried out using the ATNF Mopra millimetre telescope. 85 sources, the majority of them masers, have been detected in the 8(0)-7(1)A+ transition of methanol at 95 GHz. Together with a similar northern hemisphere survey this completes the search for 95-GHz methanol emission from the Galactic Plane. The previously found correlation between intensity of methanol emission at 44 and 95 GHz is confirmed here with the larger sample of sources. The results of LVG statistical equilibrium calculations confirm the classification of these sources as class I methanol masers pumped through collisional excitation., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 20 pages, 11 figures

We observed 14 methanol transitions near lambda=2 mm in Galactic star-forming regions. Broad, quasi-thermal J(0)-J(-1)E methanol lines near 157 GHz were detected toward 73 sources. Together with the 6(-1)-5(0)E and 5(-2)-6(-1)E lines at 133 GHz and the 7(1)-7(0)E line at 165 GHz, they were used to study the methanol excitation. In the majority of the observed objects, the Class I 6(-1)-5(0)E transition is inverted, and the Class II 5(-2)-6(-1)E and 6(0)-6(-1)E transitions are overcooled. This is exactly as predicted by models of low gain Class I masers. The absence of the inversion of Class II transitions 5(-2)-6(-1)E and 6(0)-6(-1)E means that quasi-thermal methanol emission in all objects arises in areas without a strong radiation field, which is required for the inversion., Comment: 23 pages paper (uses aasms4.sty), 12 pages tables (uses apjpt4.sty), 10 Jpeg figures, submitted to the ApJS

A new methanol maser line 6(-1)-5(0)E at 133 GHz was detected with the 12-m Kitt Peak radio telescope using remote observation mode from Moscow. Moderately strong, narrow maser lines were found in DR21(OH), DR21-W, OMC-2, M8E, NGC2264, L379, W33-Met. The masers have similar spectral features in other transitions of methanol-E at 36 and 84 GHz, and in transitions of methanol-A at 44 and 95 GHz. All these are Class I transitions, and the new masers also belong to Class I. In two other methanol transitions near 133 GHz, 5(-2)-6(-1)E and 6(2)-7(1)A+, only thermal emission was detected in some sources. Several other sources with wider lines in the transition 6(-1)-5(0)E also may be masers, since they do not show any emission at the two other methanol transitons near 133 GHz. These are NGC2071, S231, S255, GGD27, also known as Class I masers. The ratio of intensities and line widths of the 133 GHz masers and 44 GHz masers is consistent with the saturated maser model, in which the line rebroadening with respect to unsaturated masers is suppressed by cross relaxation due to elastic collisions., Comment: 4 pages, AASTeX text, uses aasms4.sty, 2 Postscript figures, to be published in ApJ