Circular Polarization of Water Masers in the Circumstellar Envelopes of Late Type Stars

Abstract

We present circular polarization measurements of circumstellar H_2O masers. The circular polarization detected in the (6_{16}-5_{23}) rotational transition of the H_{2}O maser can be attributed to Zeeman splitting in the intermediate temperature and density regime. The magnetic fields are derived using a general, LTE Zeeman analysis as well as a full radiative transfer method (non-LTE), which includes a treatment of all hyperfine components simultaneously as well as the effects of saturation and unequal populations of the magnetic substates. The differences and relevances of these interpretations are discussed extensively. The field strengths are compared with previous detections of the magnetic field on the SiO and OH masers. We show that the magnetic pressure dominates the thermal pressure by a factor of 20 or more.