Comparison of Two Epochs of the Zeeman Effect in the 44 GHz Class I methanol (CH3OH) maser line in OMC-2

TL;DR

This study compares two observation epochs of the 44 GHz methanol maser in OMC-2, revealing stable magnetic field measurements despite increased maser intensity, indicating the maser traces large-scale magnetic fields unaffected by local turbulence.

Contribution

First successful Zeeman effect detection with the new WIDAR correlator in this region, providing insights into magnetic field stability over time.

Findings

Maser intensity increased by 50%.

Magnetic field strength remained consistent within errors.

Maser traces large-scale magnetic fields unaffected by local turbulence.

Abstract

We present a second epoch of observations of the 44 GHz Class I methanol maser line toward the star forming region OMC-2. The observations were carried out with the Very Large Array, and constitute one of the first successful Zeeman effect detections with the new WIDAR correlator. Comparing to the result of our earlier epoch of data for this region, we find that the intensity of the maser increased by 50%, but the magnetic field value has stayed the same, within the errors. This suggests that the methanol maser may be tracing the large-scale magnetic field that is not affected by the bulk gas motions or turbulence on smaller scales that is causing the change in maser intensity.