A study of the variability of water maser emission in a sample of young stellar objects

Abstract

We present results of water maser observations in a sample of young stellar objects. The observations were made using the Haystack 37 m antenna during a span of time of about eight months. The sample was selected to study the variability of the water maser emission in young sources with far-infrared luminosities between 260 and 2.5 x 10(4) L-circle dot. The results are shown in a series of plots that allow the analysis of the variation of the maser emission and to discuss the global properties of the sample. The results show that in all the observed sources the water maser emission varies with time. Based on the observed variability, the sample shows two kinds of behavior. About half of the sources show large variations in the peak flux density of at least one feature (by more than an order of magnitude) in time spans between one and several months, while in all the sources there is more than one feature where the changes in peak flux density are smaller (by less than a factor of 10) but in similar time scales. Finally, the variability of the observed water maser emission does not show a clear periodicity pattern in time and we do not find a clear relationship between the luminosity of the sources and the water maser variability. From a statistical point of view, the H2O maser variability can be described as due to small (10%) Gaussian fluctuations in the line opacity.