Eric W. Koch edited Hydroxyl_OH_produces_maser_emission__.tex  over 8 years ago

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Hydroxyl (OH) produces maser emission in its ground state (see Table \ref{subsub:rad_pump}). Two levels of splitting occur in this ground state: (1) the unclosed shell of electrons in the ground state gives rise to $\Lambda$-doubling of all rotational levels, and (2) hyperfine splitting occurs between the unpaired electron and the H atom in the nucleus. Thus, there are four transitions in this ground-state with frequencies of 1612, 1665, 1667, and 1712 MHz with LTE line strengths of 1:5:9:1 \cite{lo2005}. The inversion mechanism accounting for all four transitions is complicated \citep{Elitzur_1992} and the relative maser line strengths can change drastically depending on the source's environment \citep{lo2005}. Masering in all four levels is extremely rare, and OH mega-maser detections are most often seen in the main 1665 \& 1667 MHz transitions. transitions, with 1667 MHz emission often dominating.  \begin{itemize}  \item # detections