Terahertz Water Masers: II. Further SOFIA/GREAT Detections toward Circumstellar Outflows, and a Multitransition Analysis

TL;DR

This study reports new detections of terahertz water masers in evolved stars using SOFIA and analyzes multi-transition data to understand water abundance and maser emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It provides new terahertz water maser detections and a multitransition analysis that refines water abundance estimates in circumstellar outflows.

Findings

Detected water masers at 1.296 THz in two stars.

Estimated water abundance in narrow range across sources.

Model predicts maser fluxes within a factor of a few for some sources.

Abstract

Following up on our discovery of terahertz water masers, reported in 2017, we report two further detections of water maser emission at frequencies above 1 THz. Using the GREAT instrument on SOFIA, we have detected emission in the 1.296411 THz $8_{27}-7_{34}$ transition of water toward two additional oxygen-rich evolved stars, omicron Ceti (Mira) and R Crateris, and obtained an upper limit on the 1.296 THz line emission from U Orionis. Toward these three sources, and toward the red supergiant star VY Canis Majorae from which 1.296 THz line emission was reported previously, we have also observed several lower-frequency (sub)millimeter water maser transitions using the APEX 12-m telescope along with the 22 GHz transition using the Effelsberg 100-m telescope. We have used a simple model to analyse the multi-transition data thereby obtained. Adopting, as a prior, independent literature estimates of the mass-loss-rates in these four sources and in W Hydrae, we infer water abundances in a remarkably narrow range: $n({\rm H_2O})/n({\rm H_2}) = 1.4 - 2.5 \times 10^{-4}$. For o Cet, VY CMa, and W Hya, the model is successful in predicting the maser line fluxes to within a typical factor $\sim 1.6 - 3$. For R Crt and U Ori, the model is less successful, with typical line flux predictions lying an order of magnitude above or below the observations; such discrepancies are perhaps unsurprising given the exponential nature of maser amplification.