The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey. II. Statistical and Multiwavelength Counterpart Analysis

Abstract

We present an analysis of the properties of the 6.7 GHz methanol maser sample detected in the Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey. The distribution of the masers in the Galaxy, and statistics of their multiwavelength counterparts is consistent with the hypothesis of 6.7 GHz maser emission being associated with massive young stellar objects. Using the detection statistics of our survey, we estimate the minimum number of methanol masers in the Galaxy to be 1275. The l-v diagram of the sample shows the tangent point of the Carina-Sagittarius spiral arm to be around 49.6°, and suggests the occurrence of massive star formation along the extension of the Crux-Scutum arm. A Gaussian component analysis of the maser spectra shows the mean line width to be 0.38 km s-1, which is more than a factor of 2 larger than what has been reported in the literature. We also find no evidence that faint methanol masers have different properties than their bright counterparts.