A search for supernova-remnant masers toward unidentified EGRET sources

Abstract

Supernova remnants expanding into adjacent molecular clouds are believed to be sites of cosmic ray acceleration and sources of energetic gamma-rays. Under certain environmental conditions, such interactions also give rise to unusual OH masers in which the 1720 MHz satellite line dominates over the more common 1665/7 MHz emission. Motivated by the apparent coincidence of a handful of EGRET sources with OH(1720 MHz) maser-producing supernova remnants, we have carried out a search using the Very Large Array for new OH(1720 MHz) masers within the error regions of 11 unidentified EGRET sources at low Galactic latitude. While a previously known maser associated with an HII region was serendipitously detected, initial results indicate that no new masers were found down to a limiting flux of, typically, 50 mJy. We discuss the implications of this result on the nature of the unidentified Galactic EGRET sources.