Discovery of synchronized periodic variability of methanol maser features in G26.598–0.024

Aims. We report the discovery of periodic maser variability of an unusual pattern in the high-mass young stellar object G26.598–0.024. Methods. A ten-year monitoring of the 6.7 GHz methanol maser was carried out with the Torun 32 m radio telescope. The archival data collected so far were also used to characterize the target with high angular resolution and examine its infrared variability. Results. We found anticorrelated flux variations of the opposite blueshifted and redshifted emission features with a period of 70.1±2.2 d and the relative amplitude of 1.3 and 0.6, respectively. The light curves are best fit with a sinusoidal function modulated by mild changes in the average flux density on 3–5 yr timescales. The emission of the middle parts of the spectrum shows only long-term variability. High-angular-resolution data indicate that the maser is associated with one of the two 1.3 mm dust emission cores, while the periodic emission comes from two extended regions ~1500 au apart. We discuss several possible causes of the peculiar variability.