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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Silicon monoxide maser emission has been detected in the circumstellar envelopes of many evolved stars. It is a good tracer of the wind dynamics within a few stellar radii of the central star. We investigated the polarization morphology in the circumstellar envelope of an AGB star, R Cas, by using the VLBA to map the linear and circular polarization of the v=1, J=1-0 SiO maser transition during 23 epochs over two stellar cycles. The average fractional circular polarization is a few percent. The average fractional linear polarization per epoch is 11–58%, but some isolated features exceed 100%, probably because the total intensity emission is smoother and more resolved-out. The maser electric polarization vector angle has a preferrential tendency to be either parallel or perpendicular to the radial direction to the star.