
doi: 10.1086/185428
Extreme surface brightnesses have long been reported for water masers which are well beyond what is found in self-consistent, theoretical investigations of these masers. The transport of maser radiation is calculated when two masers, having the properties inferred for the numerous weaker masers and separated by distances characteristic of the molecular cloud, are aligned to within the angular spread of the beam of maser radiation. The beam size is reduced and brightness temperatures similar to the highest observed values are readily produced. This enhanced beaming reduces the number of photons required from each maser feature to a level that can be understood within available pumping scenarios. The large number of weaker masers that have been identified in the most luminous galactic cloud of water masers (the W49 region) makes it especially plausible that alignments occur and produce the very bright masers in this region.
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