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

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 8₂₇ - 7₃₄ 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 analyze the multitransition 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(H₂O)/n(H₂) = 1.4-2.5 × 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 ∼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. ^* GREAT, the German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahertz frequencies, is a development by the MPI für Radioastronomie and the KOSMA/Universität zu Köln, in cooperation with the DLR Institut für Optische Sensorsysteme.