Water Masers in the Galactic Center

Abstract

AbstractThe Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) makes up roughly the inner 500 pc of the Milky Way and has a large amount of dense hot gas, strong magnetic fields, and highly energetic particles. The Survey of Water and Ammonia in the Galactic Center (SWAG) is a major imaging line survey using the Australia Telescope Compact Array with the goal to map out the molecular content in the entire CMZ. SWAG data includes the 22 GHz H2O maser transition which is typically used as a tracer for phases of star formation, including both young stellar objects (YSOs) and evolved stars, such as asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. The SWAG H2O survey is significantly deeper with better resolution than existing surveys that cover the entire CMZ. The goal is to create a robust catalog of the maser positions, spectral properties, and the sources they trace. The H2O maser catalog shows 703 H2O masers which increases the amount of detected H2O masers in the CMZ by more than an order of magnitude. The H2O masers have a more symmetric distribution in the Galactic center than that of the gas. Cross-correlation with other observations and catalogs will provide information relating maser properties to YSOs and AGB stars, for which multiple maser components will provide outflow properties. We will also connect the surrounding molecular gas to the YSO maser velocities.