H2O maser emission at 22 GHz in the circumstellar envelope is one of the good tracers of detailed physics and kinematics in the mass loss process of asymptotic giant branch stars. Long-term monitoring of an H2O maser spectrum with high time resolution enables us to clarify acceleration processes of the expanding shell in the stellar atmosphere. We monitored the H2O maser emission of the semi-regular variable R Crt with the Kagoshima 6-m telescope, and obtained a large data set of over 180 maser spectra over a period of 1.3 years with an observational span of a few days. Using an automatic peak detection method based on least-squares fitting, we exhaustively detected peaks as significant velocity components with the radial velocity on a 0.1 km s−1 scale. This analysis result shows that the radial velocity of redshifted and blue-shifted components exhibits a change between acceleration and deceleration on the time scale of a few hundred days. These velocity variations are likely to correlate with intensity variations, in particular during flaring state of H2O masers. It seems reasonable to consider that the velocity variation of the maser source is caused by shock propagation in the envelope due to stellar pulsation. However, it is difficult to explain the relationship between the velocity variation and the intensity variation only from shock propagation effects. We found that a time delay of the integrated maser intensity with respect to the optical light curve is about 150 days.

We present the results of simultaneous monitoring observations of H2O 61,6–52,3 (22GHz) and SiO J=1–0, 2–1, 3–2 maser lines (43, 86, 129GHz) toward five post-AGB (candidate) stars, using the 21-m single-dish telescopes of the Korean VLBI Network. Depending on the target objects, 7 – 11 epochs of data were obtained. We detected both H2O and SiO maser lines from four sources: OH16.1−0.3, OH38.10−0.13, OH65.5+1.3, and IRAS 19312+1950. We could not detect H2O maser emission toward OH13.1+5.1 between the late OH/IR and post-AGB stage. The detected H2O masers show typical double- peaked line profiles. The SiO masers from four sources, except IRAS 19312+1950, show the peaks around the stellar velocity as a single peak, whereas the SiO masers from IRAS 19312+1950 occur above the red peak of the H2O maser. We analyzed the properties of detected maser lines, and investigated their evolutionary state through comparison with the full widths at zero power. The distribution of observed target sources was also investigated in the IRAS two-color diagram in relation with the evolutionary stage of post-AGB stars. From our analyses, the evolutionary sequence of observed sources is suggested as OH65.5+1.3! OH13.1+5.1! OH16.1−0.3! OH38.10−0.13, except for IRAS 19312+1950. In addition, OH13.1+5.1 from which the H2O maser has not been detected is suggested to be on the gateway toward the post-AGB stage. With respect to the enigmatic object, IRAS 19312+1950, we could not clearly figure out its nature. To properly explain the unusual phenomena of SiO and H2O masers, it is essential to establish the relative locations and spatial distributions of two masers using VLBI technique. We also include the 1.2 – 160 μm spectral energy distribution using photometric data from the following surveys: 2MASS, WISE, MSX, IRAS, and AKARI (IRC and FIS). In addition, from the IRAS LRS spectra, we found that the depth of silicate absorption features shows significant variations depending on the evolutionary sequence, associated with the termination of AGB phase mass-loss.

We observe ten known 22GHz H2O maser galaxies during February 19–22, 2011 using the 21 m Tamna telescope of the Korean VLBI Network and a new wide-band digital spectrometer. Simultaneously we searched for 43GHz SiO v = 1, 2, J = 1–0 maser emission. We detect H2O maser emission towards five sources (M 33, NGC 1052, NGC 1068, NGC 4258, M 82), with non-detections towards the remaining sources (UGC 3193, UGC 3789, Antennae H2O-West, M 51, NGC 6323) likely due to sensitivity. Our 22GHz spectra are consistent with earlier findings. Our simultaneous 43GHz SiO maser search produced non-detections, yielding – for the first time – upper limits on the 43GHz SiO maser emission in these sources at a 3  sensitivity level of 0.018K–0.033K (0.24 Jy–0.44 Jy) in a 1.75 km s−1 velocity resolution. Our findings suggest that any 43GHz SiO masers in these sources (some having starburst-associated H2O kilomasers) must be faint compared to the 22GHz H2O maser emission.

We have initiated a Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI) monitoring project of 36 methanol maser sources at 6.7 GHz using the Japanese VLBI Network (JVN) and East-Asian VLBI Network (EAVN), starting in August 2010. The purpose of this project is to systematically reveal 3-dimensional (3-D) kine- matics of rotating disks around forming high-mass protostars. As an initial result, we present proper mo- tion detections for two methanol maser sources showing an elliptical spatial morphology, G 002.53+00.19 and G 006.79-00.25, which could be the best candidates associated with the disk. The detected proper motions indicate a simple rotation in G 002.53+00.19 and rotation with expansion in G 006.79-00.25, respectively, on the basis of disk model fits with rotating and expanding components. The expanding motions might be caused by the magnetic-centrifugal wind on the disk.

We present preliminary results from OH ground state phase referenced observations carried out with the Multi Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) and e-MERLIN towards the massive star forming region W49A. There are three active SFRs within this complex: W49 North (W49 N), W49 South (W49 S) and W49 South West (W49 SW). The first epoch of observations was obtained in 2005 with MERLIN while the second epoch was obtained in 2013 with the e-MERLIN upgraded system. In this paper, we present 1665 and 1720 MHz maser emission towards W49 S and W49 SW. Overall, both epochs show good agreement with the previous observations of Argon et al. (2000) carried out with the Very Large Array (VLA). The better sensitivity and wider velocity coverage of the MERLIN/e-MERLIN observations allowed us to discover a new 1720 MHz OH maser site in W49 S.

Simultaneous time monitoring observations of H2O 616 − 523, SiO J = 1–0, 2–1, 3–2, and 29SiO v = 0, J = 1–0 lines are carried out in the direction of the Mira variable star TX Cam with the Korean VLBI Network single dish radio telescopes. For the first time, the H2O maser emission from TX Cam is detected near the stellar velocity at five epochs from April 10, 2013 (Ø = 3.13) to June 4, 2014 (Ø = 3.89) including minimum optical phases. The intensities of H2O masers are very weak compared to SiO masers. The variation of peak antenna temperature ratios among SiO v = 1, J = 1–0, J = 2–1, and J = 3–2 masers is investigated according to their phases. The shift of peak velocities of H2O and SiO masers with respect to the stellar velocity is also investigated according to observed optical phases. The H2O maser emission occurs around the stellar velocity during our monitoring interval. On the other hand, the peak velocities of SiO masers show a spread compared to the stellar velocity. The peak velocities of SiO J = 2–1, and J = 3–2 masers show a smaller spread with respect to the stellar velocity than those of SiO J = 1–0 masers. These simultaneous observations of multi-frequencies will provide a good constraint for maser pumping models and a good probe for investigating the stellar atmosphere and envelope according to their different excitation conditions.