Landing page for project EM154

Extragalactic OH megamasers (rest-frame 1.7 GHz) can be used to trace both star-formation and AGN activity in merging systems. However, such studies have been limited to the local Universe and the most extreme starbursts due to the targeted nature of the observations. The new Apertif Wide-Extragalactic Survey will provide the first unbiased, flux-limited blind survey for OH megamaser galaxies between 0.2 < z < 0.5. In this proposal, we request e-MERLIN and EVN follow-up of the first OH megamaser galaxy blindly detected with Apertif. The aims of the proposal are to i) map the main OH lines to determine the distribution of the masers with respect to the AGN, possibly testing models for molecular gas feeding of the central engine or search for possible outflows; ii) confirm/search for the emission from the two satellite OH lines to constrain the emission models, and iii) map the radio continuum to connect the OH emission with the radio-jets and extended star-formation. These observations will also serve as a pilot for the upcoming >100 new maser systems to be discovered with Apertif.

This data is part of the archive of VLBI data maintained by JIVE on behalf of the EVN, a network of radio telescopes located primarily in Europe and Asia, with additional antennas in South Africa. The EVN archive itself has the DOI https://doi.org/10.17616/R3Z197