Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union

Table of Contents - 2007 - Volume 3, Symposium S242 (Astrophysical Masers and their Environments)  

Contributed Papers

Zeeman splitting in OH megamasers

Timothy Robishawa1, Carl Heilesa1 and Eliot Quataerta1

a1 Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Abstract

We detected significant Zeeman splitting in the 1667 MHz OH megamaser emission from four ultraluminous galaxies. These detections, in addition to being the first extragalactic detection of the Zeeman effect in an emission line, suggest that OH megamasers are excellent extragalactic magnetometers.

Keywords

  • Masers;
  • galaxies: magnetic fields;
  • galaxies: starburst;
  • ISM: molecules
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