Most sources of B2O maser radio emission at 1.35 cm, associated with star formation regions, show strong variability with, sometimes, rapid bursts of emission (see, e.g., Liljeström 1984, Rowland and Cohen 1986, and references therein). A preliminary conclusion on the possible cyclicity of H2O maser variability can be drawn (Lekht et al. 1982, 1983), with a quasiperiod of several years. The “quiet” state of a maser source, with moderate, slowly varying values of the line flux density, turns to the “active” phase with H2O line bursts (Lekht et al. 1983). The H2O maser generation region is probably located in a rotating gas-and-dust disc (torus) around a protostar (or young star). This is pointed to by VLBI observations showing in some sources maser features arranged in an ellipsoidal structure around a common centre (presumably, the protostellar object - see Downes et al. 1979), as well as by symmetrical character of E2O line profiles of many masers (Lekht et al. 1982). As an excitation mechanism for H2O, collisional pumping in two-temperature medium behind a shock front (with hot heavy particles and cold free electrons or vice versa) is widely accepted (Bolgova et al. 1982, Kylafis and Norman 1986).
History of the Light Curves and Molecular Maser Emission of the Miras U Ori and R Leo