First Interstellar HCO$^+$ Maser

TL;DR

A new interstellar HCO$^+$ maser was detected near DR21(OH), exhibiting non-thermal emission characteristics, supporting theories of maser formation through outflow interactions with dense molecular gas.

Contribution

First detection of an interstellar HCO$^+$ maser, providing observational evidence for maser formation via outflow interactions with dense molecular pockets.

Findings

Detected HCO$^+$ maser with brightness temperature > 2500 K

Maser coincides with methanol maser DR21(OH)-1

Supports outflow interaction theory for maser origin

Abstract

A previously unseen maser in the J = 1 - 0 transition of HCO$^+$ has been detected by the Combined Array for Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). A sub-arcsecond map was produced of the 2 arcmin$^2$ region around DR21(OH), which has had previous detections of OH and methanol masers. This new object has remained undetected until now due to its extremely compact size. The object has a brightness temperature of $>$ 2500 K and a FWHM linewidth of 0.497 km s$^{-1}$, both of which suggest non-thermal line emission consistent with an unsaturated maser. This object coincides in position and velocity with the methanol maser named DR21(OH)-1 by \citet{plambeck90}. No compact HCO$^+$ emission was present in the CARMA data towards the other methanol masers described in that paper. These new results support the theory introduced in \citet{plambeck90} that these masers likely arise from strong outflows interacting with low mass, high density pockets of molecular gas. This is further supported by recent observations of a CO outflow by \citet{zapata12} that traces the outflow edges and confirms that the maser position lies along the edge of the outflow where interaction with molecular tracers can occur.