VLBA Survey of OH Masers in Star-Forming Regions II: Satellite Lines
  Using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) we performed a high resolution OH
maser survey in Galactic star-forming regions (SFRs). We observed all the
ground state spectral lines: the main lines at 1665 and 1667 MHz and the
satellite lines at 1612 and 1720 MHz. Due to the exceptionality of finding
satellite lines in SFRs, we will focus our discussion on those lines. In our
sample of 41 OH maser sources, five (12%) showed the 1612 MHz line and ten
(24%) showed the 1720 MHz line, with only one source showing both lines. We
find that 1720 MHz emission is correlated with the presence of HII regions,
suggesting that this emission could be used to diagnose or trace high-mass star
formation. We include an analysis of the possible mechanisms that could be
causing this correlation as well as assessing the possible relationships
between lines in our sample. In particular, the presence of magnetic fields
seems to play an important role, as we found Zeeman splitting in four of our
sources (W75 N, W3(OH), W51 and NGC 7538). Our results have implications for
current understanding of the formation of high-mass stars as well as on the
masing processes present in SFRs.
