Methanol masers in Galactic center region supernova remnants

摘要

Methanol masers can be used to constrain densities and estimate kinematical distances to supernova remnants (SNRs), important parameters in cosmic ray acceleration models. With the goal of testing those models both for SNRs inside and outside the Galactic center (GC) region, we have used the Very Large Array to search for 36 GHz and 44 GHz methanol lines in Galactic SNRs. We report on the overall results of the maser search, and in particular the results of the GC SNR G1.4-0.1 in which more than 40 masers were found. They may be due to interactions between the SNR and at least two separate molecular clouds. Methanol masers were also detected in W28 and in SgrA East.