Masers in Star Formation Regions arise chiefly from the molecules of methanol, hydroxyl, and water; in the case of methanol and hydroxyl, masing transitions are numerous. Exploring the relationship between the maser species (and their relationship to any associated ultracompact HII region detectable at radio wavelengths) can be made at two levels: first, at the general level, assessing whether the occurrence together of some species, and the absence of others, reveals significant properties of the site as a whole; second, at a deeper level, to assess whether the masing spots are coincident in both velocity and space.

The first may be used as a diagnostic of the evolutionary state of the embedded young massive star. The second reveals physical conditions.

New studies relevant to these issues are discussed here. Substantial unbiased surveys of the major masing transitions are especially valuable in allowing a more effective interpretation of existing targeted observations.

Radio synthesis observations made with the BIMA interferometer at 29, 86 and 216 GHz are presented for twelve galactic fields containing multiple interstellar OH and H2O maser sites. A dusty molecular cloud was found at 20 of the 23 maser sites in the fields studied. The clouds have masses in the range 50 to 800 M⊙ and diameters between 0.1 and 0.5 pc.

The data show that most masers are located near the centers of massive, dusty molecular cores. The cores appear to be centrally condensed and internally excited. These results suggest that most masers found in star-forming regions are associated with a massive young object at the center of a collapsing molecular cloud. The kinematics of the core gas, and association with ultra-compact HII regions, implies that the duration of the maser phase includes collapse, expansion and early formation of an HII region.

The infrared represents an alternative wavelength regime in which to study the environments of maser emission, while at the same time complementing the information obtained through radio techniques. The near infrared (1–2 μm) yields information on outflows, shocks, and reflected dust emission, while the thermal infrared (3–30 μm) yields information on the thermal dust distribution around stars. Thus, the infrared regime yields important clues in determining whether masers exist in shocks, outflows, circumstellar accretion disks, or in the dense medium close to protostars.

The class 0 source S106 FIR is a good candidate to investigate a very early phase of star formation because of the presence of an AU-scale Microjet, discovered by our VLBA H2O maser observations and the absence of an extensive CO outflow. In order to reveal the properties of S106 FIR, we conducted observations of 2-mm continuum emission with the Nobeyama Millmeter Array. We detected a weak compact continuum emission around S106 FIR. We analysed the spectral energy distribution of S106 FIR. It is found that the dust temperature and the β index of the dust opacity range from 31 to 55 K and from 1.4 to 1.6, respectively. Using these results, we computed the mass of the core aound S106 FIR and the bolometric luminosity of 3.1 to 5.8 M⊙ and 230 to 1070 L⊙, respectively.

I present a review of observations of water masers, in particular very high angular resolution of water masers using Very Long Baseline Interferometry, with which it is possible to probe the environment of young stellar objects and forming stars within only a few A.U. of the protostar, its accretion disk, and therefore the base of outflowing material. Although reference is made to some high-luminosity sources, the main thrust of the review are the water masers found toward forming objects whose mass and luminosity will be approximately that of the Sun when they reach the main sequence.

We present the results from a series of multi-epoch 22 GHz H2O maser surveys with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope and the VLA towards low-mass young stellar objects, including all the class 0 sources in the northern sky. Our Nobeyama 45 m survey is the deepest survey - down to an isotopic H2O luminosity of ∼ 10−13L⊙ - performed so far. From this survey, we obtained the following results. (1) Class 0 sources show high H2O maser activity: our derived detection rates are ∼ 38% for class 0, but only ∼ 4% for class I sources. (2) Activity of the H2O masers is more likely related to 100 AU scale ionized jets than to large scale molecular outflows.

We present the current activity of the Arcetri group in the field of water masers. This is mainly represented by observations with the Medicina radiotelescope, whose main outcome has been the compilation of the Arcetri Catalog and the study of time variability of selected sources. The Arcetri Catalog update reports the results of the observations carried out from January 1993 to April 2000 on a sample of 300 sources. The global properties of the complete Arcetri Catalog (including Comoretto et al. 1990, and Brand et al. 1994) are discussed. Of the 1013 sources, 937 have an IRAS counterpart within 1 arcmin from the nominal position of the maser. We establish a classification scheme based on the IRAS flux densities which allows to distinguish between water masers associated with star forming regions and late-type stars. The time variability study shows a large variety of behaviors. Generally more luminous sources present less variable emission and spectral components over a wider velocity range.

The strong water maser line at 22 GHz is an excellent tool for studying shocked and turbulent interstellar regions, especially, if simultaneous single-dish and VLBI data are available. After a brief review of 22 GHz time variation studies, we focus on effects caused by magnetic field pressure on observed properties of water masers. We use the powerful and rich maser cluster W49N as an example. Furthermore, we point out the connection between postshock wave damping and observed excess in single-dish flux density and line width.

A sample of 14 water maser sources associated with young stellar objects (YSOs) has been monitored over 13 years with the Medicina 32-m antenna. The YSOs have been selected with bolometric luminosities from 20 L⊙ to 2 × 106 L⊙ with the aim of investigating the relationship between H2O maser variability and stellar mass. The results are presented in various graphical forms which allow to follow the variation of the different spectral components. In particular, four quantities have been considered in our analysis: the intensity of the maser lines as a function of time and velocity; the flux integrated over the observed velocity range as a function of time; the maximum flux ever observed at each velocity; and the frequency of occurrence of the maser emission at any given velocity.

We report the first detection of vibrationally excited water maser emission in the circumstellar envelope of two young stellar objects (W51M, Z CMa). The results suggest that the observed 96 GHz water maser emission traces hot gas in an accretional stage of the protostellar evolution.

The young stellar object SVS 13 has been proposed as the powering source of the HH 7-11 objects. Recent observations have revealed that in the radio continuum (3.6-cm) the source is a binary separated by about 0.3 in the east-west direction. We present Very Large Array observations, made in the highest angular resolution A configuration, of H2O maser emission toward this source. Our data show that the H2O spots appear to be segregated in two velocity groups: a group with radial velocity similar to that of the ambient cloud (VLSR ⋍ 8 km s−1) that is associated with the western radio source, and a blueshifted (by ∼20 km s−1) velocity group that is associated with the eastern radio source. We discuss the possible implications of this observation.

We present preliminary observations of water masers associated with IRAS4, a pair of young stellar objects in the NGC 1333 star forming region. The masers are quite strong and spatially distinct. Proper motion observations have been obtained from various epochs of observation typically separated by about three weeks. IRAS4A consists of two regions of maser activity separated by about 114 AU along a position angle of 138 degrees. Expansion of about 68 km/s is detected. IRAS4B consists of two linear emission regions separated by about 175 AU on a 150 degree position angle. The linear features are about 15 AU in length and about 2 AU thick. They are expanding away from each other at about 70 km/s.

We report results of radio continuum (1.3 and 3.6 cm) and H2O maser line observations, made with the Very Large Array (A configuration), toward the star-forming region AFGL 2591. We detected 85 maser spots toward this region, which are distributed in three main groups. Two of these groups spatially coincide with the radio continuum sources VLA 2 and VLA 3. The maser spots associated with VLA 3 are distributed along a shell-like structure of 0.01 and nearly perpendicular to the CO bipolar outflow. We propose that VLA 3 is the center of the observed molecular flow in this region. Finally, we confirm that AFGL 2591 region is a cluster of B type stars, each one with its own optically thin H II region.

We report the results of a multi-epoch campaign of water maser observations of Bright Rimmed Globules (BRCs) associated with IRAS point sources. We have observed all of the 44 BRCs listed by Sugitani et al. (1991), visible in the northern hemisphere. With the exception of one globule, IC 1396N, we did not detect water maser emission in any of the targets. This negative result is somewhat surprising, if the suggestion of induced massive star formation in BRCs is correct. In contrast, we believe that newly formed stars inside BRCs tend to be of low luminosity and the occurrence of H2O maser emission is rare, episodic, and highly variable.

We made observations of H2O masers in the LkHα 234 star forming region using the Japanese domestic VLBI network (J-Net). We first present spatial and velocity structures of the maser sources of C1 and C3 which are detected by Tofani et al.(1995). The distribution of H2O maser components in C1 shows an extent of 300×150 AU. On the other hand, it shows a compact and linear extent of 15×3 AU in C3, and its position angle (RA.=232 °) roughly agrees with that of the H2 jet (PA.=226 °). Moreover, the most blue-shifted and red-shifted maser components are located at both ends of the linear extent, indicating that this might be a very small jet ejected from the deeply embedded protostar. However, it is difficult to explain the distribution of intermediate velocity components by a simple jet model. We will discuss whether the H2O masers originate in a jet or a disk.

We present the spatial and velocity distributions of water masers in W 43A. Most of the maser features are spatially and kinematically collimated to a surprising extent. It is very likely that the jet in W 43A is predominantly composed of warm molecules traced by water maser emission. The position angle of the spatial collimation of the maser clusters is slightly different from the directions of both the cluster separation and the proper motions. We propose a model involving a precessing jet to explain the axis offsets. The discovery of a molecular jet with precession in W 43A provides important information on our understanding of the formation of collimated molecular jets and may provide clues on specific stages of stellar evolution.

We have carried out and recently reported VLBA multi-epoch water maser observations toward Cepheus A with an angular and velocity resolution of 0.5 mas and 0.2 km s−1, respectively. Some of the masers detected previously with the VLA (observations made with angular and velocity resolutions of 80 mas and 1.3 km s−1, respectively) are resolved now into linear/arcuate coherent “microstructures”. These structures, while smaller than the VLA beam, are 6-200 times the size of the VLBA synthesized beam. The morphology and the observed proper motions found in these structures imply three different centers of star formation activity in a region of ⋍ 0.3 radius (⋍ 200 AU). The most remarkable result from these observations is the discovery of an arc of water masers which is perfectly fitted by a circle to one part in a thousand. This arc is expanding and suggests a spherical “puff” of ejected material ejected 33 years ago from a protostar located 600 mas south of the radio jet HW2. This spherical ejection represents a very strong challenge for theoretical studies of star formation.