We report the first detection of submillimeter water maser emission toward water-fountain nebulae, which are post-AGB stars that exhibit high-velocity water masers. Using APEX we found emission in the ortho-H2O (10_29-9_36) transition at 321.226 GHz
toward three sources: IRAS 15445-5449, IRAS 18043-2116 and IRAS 18286-0959. Similarly to the 22 GHz masers, the submillimeter water masers are expanding with a velocity larger than that of the OH masers, suggesting that these masers also originate in fast bipolar outflows. In IRAS 18043-2116 and IRAS 18286-0959, which figure among the sources with the fastest water masers, the velocity range of the 321 GHz masers coincides with that of the 22 GHz masers, indicating that they likely coexist. Towards IRAS 15445-5449 the submillimeter masers appear in a different velocity range, indicating that they are tracing different regions. The intensity of the submillimeter masers is comparable to that of the 22 GHz masers, implying that the kinetic temperature of the region where the masers originate should be Tk > 1000 K. We propose that the passage of two shocks through the same gas can create the conditions necessary to explain the presence of strong high-velocity 321 GHz masers coexisting with the 22 GHz masers in the same region.
We present Submillimeter Array observations of high frequency SiO masers around the supergiant VX Sgr and the semi-regular variable star W Hya. The J=5-4, v=1 28SiO and v=0 29SiO masers of VX Sgr are shown to be highly linearly polarized with a polar
ization from ~5-60%. Assuming the continuum emission peaks at the stellar position, the masers are found within ~60 mas of the star, corresponding to ~100 AU at a distance of 1.57 kpc. The linear polarization vectors are consistent with a large scale magnetic field, with position and inclination angles similar to that of the dipole magnetic field inferred in the H2O and OH maser regions at much larger distances from the star. We thus show for the first time that the magnetic field structure in a circumstellar envelope can remain stable from a few stellar radii out to ~1400 AU. This provides further evidence supporting the existence of large scale and dynamically important magnetic fields around evolved stars. Due to a lack of parallactic angle coverage, the linear polarization of masers around W Hya could not be determined. For both stars we observed the 28SiO and 29SiO isotopologues and find that they have a markedly different distribution and that they appear to avoid each other. Additionally, emission from the SO 5_5-4_4 line was imaged for both sources. Around W Hya we find a clear offset between the red- and blue-shifted SO emission. This indicates that W Hya is likely host to a slow bipolar outflow or a rotating disk-like structure.
