Searching for new hypercompact HII regions

Abstract

Hypercompact (HC) HII regions are, by nature, very young HII regions, associated with the earliest stages of massive star formation. They may represent the transition phase as an early B-type star grows into an O-type star. Unfortunately, so few HCHII regions are presently known that their general attributes and defining characteristics are based on small number statistics. A larger sample is needed for detailed studies and good statistics. Class II methanol masers are one of the best indicators of the early stages of massive star formation. Using the Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey - the most sensitive blind survey for 6.7 GHz methanol masers to date - we selected 24 HCHII region candidates. We made EVLA continuum observations at 3.6 and 1.3 cm to search for HCHII regions associated with these masers. We identified six potential HCHII regions in our sample based on the presence of optically thick free-free emission. Overall, we find that 30% of the methanol masers have an associated centimeter radio continuum source (separation less than 0.1 pc), which is in general agreement with previous studies.

Accepted for publication in ApJL, in the Special Issue of the EVLA

References in corpus (6)

• The Expanded Very Large Array -- a New Telescope for New Science
• The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey--I: Data
• The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey-IV: Accurate Astrometry and Source Morphologies
• Survey of intermediate/high-mass star-forming regions at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths
• The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey - II: Statistical and Multi-wavelength Counterpart Analysis
• Spectral Energy Distributions of 6.7 GHz methanol masers

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