SiO Maser Forest at the Galactic Center

Abstract

A moderately deep survey of stellar maser sources toward the Galactic center has been made in the SiO J=1-0 v=1 and v=2 transitions (~ 43 GHz) with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope of a beam size of about 40". At the Galactic center (Sgr A*), 7 (4 new) SiO maser sources were detected in one beam. In order to investigate the spatial distribution of SiO maser sources, we have also observed the offset positions by +- 40" in Galactic longitude from the Galactic center. In total, 7 (4 new) SiO maser sources were detected at the offset positions. Taking into account the shorter integration time at the offset positions, we find that the surface number density of SiO maser sources is nearly constant at the Galactic center. The number density of SiO maser sources is found to be an order of magnitude higher than the density of OH 1612 MHz objects. A radial-velocity gradient in Galactic longitude was not detected. These facts indicate that the SiO maser sources seen toward the Galactic center are mostly associated with the stellar population of a Galactic stellar nuclear disk of more than a few arc minute radius.

15 pages, 1 figure, Astrophysical Journal (Letters) in press

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Observations of SiO Maser Sources within a Few Parsec from the Galactic Center
• A Measurement of Proper Motions of SiO Maser Sources in the Galactic Center with the VLBA
• SiO Maser Survey towards off-plane O-rich AGBs around the orbital plane of the Sagittarius Stellar Stream
• Observations of the 86 GHz SiO maser sources in the Central Parsec of the Galactic Centre
• 86 GHz SiO masers in Galactic Centre OH/IR stars