Infrared characteristics of sources associated with OH, H$_{2}$O, SiO and CH$_{3}$OH masers

TL;DR

This study analyzes infrared properties of sources linked to various astrophysical masers, revealing common characteristics and providing new criteria for identifying stellar and interstellar maser sources.

Contribution

It compiles and statistically analyzes infrared data of maser-associated sources, establishing criteria for their identification and classification.

Findings

Sources with stellar masers are concentrated in specific infrared regions.

Interstellar maser sources also show distinct infrared concentration.

New infrared criteria aid in searching for coexisting maser sources.

Abstract

We collect all published OH, H2O, SiO and CH3OH masers in literature. The associated infrared sources of these four masers were identified with MSX PSC catalogues. We look for common infrared properties among the sources associated with four masers and make a statistical study. The MSX sources associated with stellar OH, stellar H2O and SiO masers concentrated in a small regions and the MSX sources associated with interstellar OH, interstellar H2O and CH3OH masers also concentrated in a small regions in an [A]-[D].vs.[A][-[E] diagram. These results give us new criterion to search for coexisting stellar maser samples for OH, H2O and SiO masers and interstellar maser samples for OH, H2O and CH3OH masers.