Maser and infrared studies of oxygen-rich AGB stars

We explored an efficient method to identify evolved stars with oxygen-rich envelopes in the late asymptotic giant branch (AGB) or post-AGB phase of stellar evolution, which include a rare class of objects - the "water fountains (WF)." Our method considers the OH and H_2_O maser spectra, the near-infrared Q-parameters (these are color indices accounting for the effect of extinction), and far-infrared AKARI colors. Here we first present the results of a new survey on OH and H_2_O masers.

There were 108 color-selected objects: 53 of them were observed in the three OH maser lines (1612, 1665, and 1667 MHz), with 24 detections (16 new for 1612 MHz); and 106 of them were observed in the H_2_O maser line (22 GHz), with 24 detections (12 new). We identify a new potential WF source, IRAS 19356+0754, with large velocity coverages of both OH and H_2_O maser emission. In addition, several objects with high-velocity OH maser emission are reported for the first time.