Observations of ground-state OH in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We have carried out a series of observations of the 1665- and 1667-MHztransitions of the 2Pi_3/2, J=3/2 OH ground state towards six selected HIIregions in the Large Magellanic Cloud (IRAS 05011-6815 and MRC 0510-689,0513-694B, 0539-691, 0540-696B, 0540-697A) using the Australia TelescopeCompact Array. The study has provided the first accurate positions for known1665- and 1667-MHz OH masers as well as detecting several new masers. Theregions all contain H_2O or CH_3OH masers but OH masers were detected in onlyfour. The 1.6-GHz continuum emission was also imaged to investigate its spatialrelationship to the associated OH maser. Although some masers are close tocompact continuum components, in other cases they are near the continuumdistribution boundaries and perhaps have been created as a result of the HIIregion interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS 6 pages, 9 figure