The work reported on here was done as my Masters Thesis "Insights into high mass star formation from methanol maser observations."* at DePaul University, advised by Professor Anuj P. Sarma PhD, and was defended successfully on June 17th 2013. A full copy of it can be found on my Selected Works website
A powerpoint of talk which I gave for my thesis defense is here. I also have a video of the introductory explanation of my thesis.
To get an idea of what we mean by massive stars consider the sun. Astrophysicist measure mass in terms of masses of our sun. The sun is more massive than the combined mass of every other planet in the solar system. Among the star our sun is a runt. A massive star, one of the most if not the most massive star we know of is Eta Carinae which is over one hundred times the mass of our sun.
(Note in the above they are speaking of stars size. However, a stars size does not relate to it's mass. Eta Carinae has a mass of 120 solar masses, VY Canis Majoris has a mass of about seventeen solar masses.)
The study of these stars is difficult, as I explain in my video, and powerpoint, they form farther away, and in regions which are at least twice as distant and many times more obscured by dust and gasses. To study massive star formation we need to search for sources that are bright, compact, and intense enough to reach us through all the interference. Enter the Maser. Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. These sources are what my thesis focused on.
Astrophysical masers have certain physical properties which allow us to understand the conditions in the regions where they originate. For example, water masers are found where particles of water collide. One type of methanol maser is also found where particles collide. Another is found where particles are irradiated, such as near a protostar. Knowing these things allowed me to model where these masers may be in relation to a possible circumstellar disk and bipolar molecular outflow as shown in Figure
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