Modelled 3D distribution of OH/IR stars in the Galactic disc

Abstract

ABSTRACT We have modelled the 3D distribution of OH/IR stars in the Galactic plane, traced by 1612 MHz OH maser sources with classic double horned spectral profiles. We statistically analysed over 700 maser sources detected by the HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the Milky Way (THOR) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array interferometric follow-up observations of the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl (SPLASH). With a simple model constructed from a classical density distribution of stars and luminosity functions of OH maser sources in the Galaxy, we estimate the scale height, or the half thickness of the OH/IR star distribution along the Galactic disc to be 90–290 pc. The simple model also implies that there are ∼4000 OH/IR stars hosting 1612 MHz OH masers along the Galactic Plane. Therefore, next generation telescopes such as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and SKA Phase 1 will detect about 80 per cent of such OH/IR stars in the Galaxy at a 10 mJy detection limit. Comparing the data of previously detected circumstellar 1612 MHz OH maser sources with those of THOR and SPLASH, the maser source lifetime is estimated to be ∼300 yr. This is likely a lower limit, since non-detections of masers in some cases could be affected by the flux variation of the maser source.