A SEARCH FOR EXTRAGALACTIC METHANOL MASERS

A sensitive search for 6.7-GHz methanol maser emission has been made t owards 10 galaxies which have yielded detectable microwave molecular-l ine transitions. These include several that show OH megamaser or super luminous H2O maser emission. Within the Galaxy, CH3OH and OH masers of ten occur in the same star formation regions and, in most cases, the C H3OH masers have greater peak flux densities than their OH counterpart s. Thus we might expect CH3OH masers to be associated with extragalact ic OH maser sources. We failed to detect any emission or absorption ab ove our 60-mJy detection limit. We conclude that, if the physical cond itions exist to produce CH3OH megamaser emission, they are incompatibl e with the conditions that produce OH megamaser emission.