A 95 GHz CLASS I METHANOL MASER SURVEY TOWARD GLIMPSE EXTENDED GREEN OBJECTS (EGOs)

We report the results of a systematic survey for 95 GHz class I methanol masers toward a new sample of 192 massive young stellar object candidates associated with ongoing outflows (known as extended green objects or EGOs) identified from the <i>Spitzer</i> Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) survey. The observations were made with the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) Mopra 22 m radio telescope and resulted in the detection of 105 new 95 GHz class I methanol masers. For 92 of the sources our observations provide the first identification of a class I maser transition associated with these objects (i.e., they are new class I methanol maser sources). Our survey proves that there is indeed a high detection rate (55%) of class I methanol masers toward EGOs. Comparison of the GLIMPSE point sources associated with EGOs with and without class I methanol maser detections shows that they have similar mid-IR colors, with the majority meeting the color selection criteria 0.6 < [5.8]-[8.0] < 1.4 and 0.5 < [3.6]-[4.5] < 4.0. Investigations of the Infrared Array Camera and Multiband Imaging Photometer for <i>Spitzer</i> 24 μm colors and the associated millimeter dust clump properties (mass and density) of the EGOs for the sub-samples based on the class of methanol masers they are associated with suggest that the stellar mass range associated with class I methanol masers extends to lower masses than for class II methanol masers, or alternatively class I methanol masers may be associated with more than one evolutionary phase during the formation of a high-mass star.