H2O and OH masers associated with cold infrared sources

Abstract

We present the results of our monitoring of four maser sources associated with cold infrared sources. The observations were performed in the water-vapor line at 1.35 cm with the 22-m radio telescope at the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory and in the hydroxyl lines at 18 cm with the Nancay radio telescope. Cyclic variability of the H2O maser emission was detected in all four sources. The durations of the cycles are different and lie within the range 1.8–5.5 yr. In each source, the cycles differed by a factor from 1.5 to 2.25. A fairly periodic pattern of variability was observed in IRAS 20126+4104 on a time scale from 3.6 to 5.3 yr. Models of the maser sources are discussed. In IRAS 20126+4104, we detected strong variability of the maser emission in the main OH 1665 and 1667 MHz lines. We calculated the magnetic field strength for two maser features from the Zeeman splitting of the OH line: in IRAS 18265-1517 (1.3 mG at epoch 2008) and IRAS 20126+4104 (10 mG at epoch 2014). Variability of the magnetic field was detected in the second feature. In the same sources, we detected maser emission in the 1667 MHz OH line. The presence of emission in both main OH 1665 and 1667 MHz lines is consistent with the existing model calculations and will allow the gas density in the masing regions to be refined.