A general catalogue of 6.7GHz methanol masers II: statistical analysis
Abstract
Context: Methanol masers at 6.7GHz are recognised markers of high-mass star formation regions. The study of their distribution in the Galaxy gives important insights into the star formation activity of the Milky Way. We present a statistical analysis on the General Catalogue of 6.7GHz methanol masers in the Galaxy with the aim of extracting global properties of the masers. Aims: We provide constraints on the luminosity function of 6.7GHz methanol masers and on their total number in the Galaxy. Methods: We model the spatial distribution of the masers in the Milky Way by using their distribution in galactocentric distance which is unambiguous once a rotation curve for the Galaxy is assumed. This is the starting point for determining the luminosity function of the masers. Results: The luminosity function of 6.7GHz methanol masers is modelled as a power-law with sharp cutoffs and having an index lying between -1.5 and -2. We also predict the number of detections of methanol masers assuming different sensitivity limits in the observations.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0612088,
title = {A general catalogue of 6.7GHz methanol masers II: statistical analysis},
author = {Michele R. Pestalozzi and A. Chrysostomou and J. Collett and V. Minier and J. Conway and R. Booth},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0612088},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
References added. 10 pages, accepted for publication in A&A