A Search for Pulsar-Stimulated OH Emission in Supernova Remnants

Mark M. McKinnon (NRAO)

The recent discovery of pulsar-stimulated OH emission (PSE) in an HII region suggests that pulsars may modulate the maser emission in other astronomical objects. Additional detections of PSE raise the possibility of using pulsars as probes of the physical properties of masers. Alternatively, masers could aid detections in pulsar searches by serving as interstellar amplifiers. The NRAO Green Bank Telescope was used to search for PSE at 1720 MHz in selected supernova remnants. Emission features were detected in the spectra of five pulsars, but none of them was modulated by the pulsar.