Methanol Masers as Precursors of Gamma-Ray Sources

Methanol masers are known to be associated with regions of massive star formation. By studying the distribution of these masers with respect to unidentified EGRET sources, one may be able to identify regions of enhanced star formation leading to either supernova remnants and/or pulsars. In this study, we test for positional coincidences between class II methanol masers and EGRET sources and determine the statistical significance of these coincidences.