WATER MASERS IN THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY. I. A SURVEY FOR WATER MASERS, AMMONIA, AND HYDROGEN RECOMBINATION LINES

Abstract

ABSTRACT We report the results of a Green Bank Telescope survey for water masers, ammonia (1, 1) and (2, 2), and the H66α recombination line toward 506 luminous compact 24 μm emitting regions in the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). We include the 206 sources observed in the Darling water maser survey for completeness. The survey was sensitive enough to detect any maser useful for ∼10 μas yr−1 astrometry. No new water masers, ammonia lines, or H66α recombination lines were detected individually or in spectral stacks reaching rms noise levels of ∼3 mJy and ∼0.2 mJy, respectively, in 3.1–3.3 km s−1 channels. The lack of detections in individual spectra and in the spectral stacks is consistent with Galactic extrapolations. Contrary to previous assertions, there do not seem to be any additional bright water masers to be found in M31. The strong variability of water masers may enable new maser detections in the future, but variability may also limit the astrometric utility of known (or future) masers because flaring masers must also fade.