Evolution of 1612-mhz maser emission in expanding circumstellar shells

Sep, 2005
13 pages
Published in:
  • Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 364 (2005) 783-795
e-Print:
Report number:
  • ME1293

Citations per year

20062007200820092010310
Abstract: (arXiv)
Observations show that 1612 MHz masers of OH/IR stars can fade on a timescale of a decade. This fading is probably associated with the switch from rapid mass loss, which is ultimately linked with an internal He-shell flash, to the much slower mass loss supported by more quiescent conditions. We study the observed maser decay with a composite computational model, comprising a time-dependent chemical model of the envelope, and a radiation transfer model which provides the maser pumping. Our combined model is able to reproduce the rapid decay of maser intensity, following a sudden drop in the stellar mass-loss rate. The explanation for the rapid fall in maser emission is not a fall in the OH number density, or the kinetic temperature in the inverted layers, but the loss of a radiative pump route which carries population from level 1 to level 4 via levels 16, 15 and 11. The loss of these pump routes is a result, in turn, of a greatly reduced energy density of 53 micron radiation.
  • ISM DUST
  • ISM EVOLUTION
  • ISM ATOMIC PROCESSES