A general catalogue of 6.7GHz methanol masers II: statistical analysis

Abstract

Context: Methanol masers at 6.7GHz are recognised markers of high-mass star formation regions. The study of their distribution in the Galaxy gives important insights into the star formation activity of the Milky Way. We present a statistical analysis on the General Catalogue of 6.7GHz methanol masers in the Galaxy with the aim of extracting global properties of the masers. Aims: We provide constraints on the luminosity function of 6.7GHz methanol masers and on their total number in the Galaxy. Methods: We model the spatial distribution of the masers in the Milky Way by using their distribution in galactocentric distance which is unambiguous once a rotation curve for the Galaxy is assumed. This is the starting point for determining the luminosity function of the masers. Results: The luminosity function of 6.7GHz methanol masers is modelled as a power-law with sharp cutoffs and having an index lying between -1.5 and -2. We also predict the number of detections of methanol masers assuming different sensitivity limits in the observations.

arXiv commentReferences added. 10 pages, accepted for publication in A&A

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• Trigonometric Parallaxes of 6.7 GHz Methanol Masers
• Major structures of the inner Galaxy delineated by 6.7-GHz methanol masers
• Multibeam Maser Survey of methanol and excited OH in the Magellanic Clouds: new detections and maser abundance estimates
• Online Database of Class I Methanol Masers
• The Arecibo Methanol Maser Galactic Plane Survey - III: Distances and Luminosities
• Initial phases of massive star formation in high infrared extinction clouds. I. Physical parameters
• A Global View on Star Formation: The GLOSTAR Galactic Plane Survey V. 6.7 GHz Methanol Maser Catalogue
• Infrared Dark Cloud Cores in the SCUBA Legacy Catalogue
• Discovery of weak 6.7-GHz CH3OH masers in a sample of high-mass Hi-GAL sources
• The mid-infrared environments of 6.7 GHz Methanol Masers from the Methanol Multi-Beam Survey
• Simulated Galactic methanol maser distribution to constrain Milky Way parameters
• A Search for 6.7 GHz Methanol Masers in M33
• Sardinia Radio Telescope observations of Local Group dwarf galaxies -- I. The cases of NGC6822, IC1613, and WLM
• Design, Environmental and Sustainability Constraints of new African Observatories: The example of the Mozambique Radio Astronomy Observatory