A Catalog of 44 GHz Methanol Masers in Massive Star-forming Regions. IV. The High-mass Protostellar Object Sample

Abstract

We present a survey of 56 massive star-forming regions in the 44 GHz methanol maser transition made with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA); 24 of the 56 fields showed maser emission. The data allow us to demonstrate associations, at arcsecond precision, of the Class I maser emission with outflows, H ii regions, and shocks traced by 4.5 μ m emission. We find a total of 83 maser components with line widths ranging from 0.17 to 3.3 km s −1 , with a nearly flat distribution and a median value of 1.1 km s −1 . The relative velocities of the masers with respect to the systemic velocity of the host clouds range from −2.5 to 3.1 km s −1 , with a distribution peaking near zero. We also study the correlation between the masers and the so-called extended green objects (EGOs) from the GLIMPSE survey. Multiple sources in each field are revealed from IR images as well as from centimeter continuum emission from VLA archival data; in the majority of cases the 44 GHz masers are positionally correlated with EGOs, which seem to trace the younger sources in the fields. We report a possible instance of a 44 GHz maser associated with a low-mass protostar. If confirmed, this region will be the fifth known star-forming region that hosts Class I masers associated with low-mass protostars. We discuss three plausible cases of maser variability.