A Multitransition Methanol Maser Study of the Accretion Burst Source G358.93–0.03-MM1

Abstract

Abstract We present the most complete to date interferometric study of the centimeter-wavelength methanol masers detected in G358.93−0.03 at the burst and post-burst epochs. A unique, near-IR/(sub)millimeter-dark and far-IR-loud massive young stellar object accretion burst was recently discovered in G358.93−0.03. The event was accompanied by flares of an unprecedented number of rare methanol maser transitions. The first images of three of the newly discovered methanol masers at 6.18, 12.23, and 20.97 GHz are presented in this work. The spatial structure evolution of the methanol masers at 6.67, 12.18, and 23.12 GHz is studied at two epochs. The maser emission in all detected transitions resides in a region of ∼0.″2 around the bursting source and shows a clear velocity gradient in the north–south direction, with redshifted features to the north and blueshifted features to the south. A drastic change in the spatial morphology of the masing region is found: a dense and compact “spiral” cluster detected at epoch I evolved into a disperse, “round” structure at epoch II. During the transition from the first epoch to the second, the region traced by masers expanded. The comparison of our results with the complementary Very Large Array, very long baseline interferometry, Submillimeter Array, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array maser data is conducted. The obtained methanol maser data support the hypothesis of the presence of spiral arm structures within the accretion disk, which was suggested in previous studies of the source.