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| Paper: |
OH (1720 MHz) Masers Associated with Supernova Remnants |
| Volume: |
340, Future Directions in High Resolution Astronomy: The 10th Anniversary of the VLBA |
| Page: |
334 |
| Authors: |
Brogan, C.L. |
| Abstract: |
OH (1720 MHz) masers have been found in ∼ 20 SNRs, or 10% of the known SNRs in our Galaxy. In recent years, these masers have been recognized as signposts for the interaction of SNRs with molecular gas. The OH (1720 MHz) maser line also provides a unique opportunity to measure the strength of the post-shock magnetic field via Zeeman splitting. Indeed, the Zeeman effect in these masers provide the only currently known means to directly measure the magnetic field strengths of SNRs. Recent results from efforts to both detect the magnetic fields over many spatial scales and resolve the maser spot sizes of OH (1720 MHz) masers toward several SNRs using the VLBA and MERLIN will be discussed. These observations have yielded magnetic field detections between 0.5 and 2.5 mG and large maser spot sizes of about 1015 cm. Some of the implications from these data including the resulting magnetic pressures, and brightness temperatures will also be discussed. |
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