VLA observations of broad 6-cm excited state OH lines in W49A

Abstract

Using the Very Large Array (VLA), we observed all three of the 6-cm lines of the doublet Pi 1/2, J=1/2 state of OH with sub-arcsecond resolution (about 0.4 arcsec) in W49A. While the spatial distribution and the range in velocities of the 6-cm lines are similar to those of the ground state (18-cm) OH lines, a large fraction of the total emission in all three 6-cm lines has large linewidths (about 5 -- 10 km/s) and is spatially-extended, very unlike typical ground state OH masers which typically are point-like at VLA resolutions and have linewidths less than 1 km/s. We find brightness temperatures of 5900 K, 4700 K, and greater than 730 K for the 4660-MHz, 4750-MHz, and 4765-MHz lines, respectively. We conclude that these are indeed maser lines. However, the gains are about 0.3, again very unlike the 18-cm lines which have gains greater than 10000. We compare the excited state OH emission with that from other molecules observed with comparable angular resolution to estimate physical conditions in the regions emitting the peculiar, low-gain maser lines. We also comment on the relationship with the 18-cm masers