The Starburst Contribution to the Extragalactic γ-Ray Background

By T. Thompson, E. Quataert, E. Waxman. 2006

136 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Cosmic-ray protons interacting with gas at the mean density of the interstellar medium (ISM) in starburst galaxies lose energy rapidly via inelastic collisions with ambient nuclei. The resulting pions produce secondary electrons and positrons, high-energy neutrinos, and γ-ray photons. We estimate the cumulative γ-ray emission from starburst galaxies. We find a total integrated background above 100 MeV of Fγ ≈ 10-6 GeV cm-2 s-1 sr-1 and a corresponding specific intensity at GeV energies of νIν ≈ 10-7 GeV cm-2 s-1 sr-1. Starbursts may thus account for a significant fraction of the extragalactic γ-ray background. We show that the FIR-radio correlation provides a strong constraint on the γ-ray emission from starburst galaxies because pions decay into both γ-rays and radio-emitting electron/positron pairs. We identify several nearby systems where the potential for observing γ-ray emission is the most favorable (M82, NGC 253, and IC 342), predict their fluxes, and predict a linear FIR-γ-ray correlation for the densest starbursts. If established, the FIR-γ-ray correlation would provide strong evidence for the "calorimeter" theory of the FIR-radio correlation and would imply that cosmic rays in starburst galaxies interact with gas at approximately the mean density of the ISM, thereby providing an important constraint on the physics of the ISM in starbursts.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1284beedfc8cebfdaef1df08db18bb042de686f2

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Citations in the corpus

GIANT GAMMA-RAY BUBBLES FROM FERMI-LAT: ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS ACTIVITY OR BIPOLAR GALACTIC WIND? (2010, background): “This result infers a tighter correlation between cosmic star formation history and the cosmic gamma-ray background (Thompson et al. 2007; Lacki et al. 2010).”
THE ORIGIN OF THE EXTRAGALACTIC GAMMA-RAY BACKGROUND AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DARK MATTER ANNIHILATION (2015, background): “Star-forming galaxies produce γ-rays in cosmic-ray interactions, with the acceleration of cosmic rays ultimately powered by star formation (Thompson et al. 2007; Lacki et al. 2014).”
THE FERMI-LAT HIGH-LATITUDE SURVEY: SOURCE COUNT DISTRIBUTIONS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE EXTRAGALACTIC DIFFUSE BACKGROUND (2010, background): “…& Blasi 2003), γ -ray emission from galaxy clusters (e.g. Berrington & Dermer 2003; Pfrommer et al. 2008), emission from starburst as well as normal galaxies (e.g. Pavlidou & Fields 2002; Thompson et al. 2007), are among the most likely candidates for the generation of diffuse the GeV emission.”
THE SPECTRUM OF ISOTROPIC DIFFUSE GAMMA-RAY EMISSION BETWEEN 100 MeV AND 820 GeV (2014, background): “For other populations, such as star-forming galaxies (Pavlidou & Fields 2002; Thompson et al. 2007; Fields et al. 2010; Makiya et al. 2011; Stecker & Venters 2011; Ackermann et al. 2012c) and AGN with jets oriented obliquely to our line of sight (Inoue 2011; Di Mauro et al. 2014), the cumulative…”
THE PdBI ARCSECOND WHIRLPOOL SURVEY (PAWS). I. A CLOUD-SCALE/MULTI-WAVELENGTH VIEW OF THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM IN A GRAND-DESIGN SPIRAL GALAXY (2013, background): “Thompson et al. (2007) calculate that for gas surface densities of Σgas ∼ 0.03 − 0.3 g cm−2 (i.e. ≈ 150 − 1500 M pc−2) the timescale for cosmic ray protons to lose all their energy is significantly shorter than the diffusion timescale to leave the medium.”
Dusty Star Forming Galaxies at High Redshift (2014, background): “Bremsstrahlung radiation and ionization can flatten the spectrum, but would meanwhile break the FIR/radio correlation, so cosmic ray proton cooling is needed to make up for radio emission lost due to Bremsstrahlung and ionization (Thompson et al., 2007; Lacki et al., 2010; Lacki and Thompson, 2010).”
Star-forming galaxies as the origin of diffuse high-energy backgrounds: gamma-ray and neutrino connections, and implications for starburst history (2014, background): “[8–11], and possibly to the cumulative sub-PeV neutrino background [12–16].”
DETECTION OF GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM THE STARBURST GALAXIES M82 AND NGC 253 WITH THE LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON FERMI (2009, methodology): “Inserting values for Lγ from Table 2, one finds that star-forming and starburst galaxies could make a significant, 10% contribution to the EGB at 100 MeV, as previously suggested (Pavlidou & Fields 2002; Thompson et al. 2007).”
CONTRIBUTION OF GAMMA-RAY-LOUD RADIO GALAXIES’ CORE EMISSIONS TO THE COSMIC MeV AND GeV GAMMA-RAY BACKGROUND RADIATION (2011, background): “…Waxman 2000; Totani & Kitayama 2000; Miniati 2002; Keshet et al. 2003; Gabici & Blasi 2003), normal and starburst galaxies (Pavlidou & Fields 2002; Thompson et al. 2007; Bhattacharya & Sreekumar 2009; Makiya et al. 2011; Fields et al. 2010), high Galactic latitude pulsars (Faucher-Giguère & Loeb…”
GeV OBSERVATIONS OF STAR-FORMING GALAXIES WITH THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE (2012, background): “CR escape from the Milky Way plays a major role in the formation of the measured CR spectrum, but other galaxies with higher concentrations of ambient gas may work differently, behaving as calorimeters of CR nuclei, as suggested by Thompson et al. (2007).”
GLOBAL COSMIC-RAY-RELATED LUMINOSITY AND ENERGY BUDGET OF THE MILKY WAY (2010, background): “…spectrum, is essential to interpret the radio/far-infrared relation (de Jong et al. 1985; Helou et al. 1985; Murphy et al. 2006), galactic calorimetry (e.g., Völk 1989), and predictions of extragalactic backgrounds (e.g., Thompson et al. 2007; Murphy et al. 2008), and for many other studies.”
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE FIRST SOURCE CATALOG (2010, unknown): “…6 Máız-Apellániz et al. (2004); 7 van der Hucht (2001); 8 Clark et al. (2005); 9 Dias et al. (2002); 10Harris (1996); 11Schmidt et al. (1993); 12 Thompson et al. (2007); 13 Massaro et al. (2009); 14Healey et al. (2007); 15 Healey et al. (2008); 16 Véron-Cetty & Véron (2006); 17 Kovalev…”
FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE FIRST SOURCE CATALOG (2010, unknown): “…6 Máız-Apellániz et al. (2004); 7 van der Hucht (2001); 8 Clark et al. (2005); 9 Dias et al. (2002); 10Harris (1996); 11Schmidt et al. (1993); 12 Thompson et al. (2007); 13 Massaro et al. (2009); 14Healey et al. (2007); 15 Healey et al. (2008); 16 Véron-Cetty & Véron (2006); 17 Kovalev…”
Radiative Feedback from Massive Black Holes in Elliptical Galaxies: AGN Flaring and Central Starburst Fueled by Recycled Gas (2007, background): “Consistently with the findings of Thompson et al. (2007), we also find that the radiation pressure on the dust can have a major effect during starburst phases in retarding the infall of cool gas, thus boosting the mass transformed into stars and reducing the gas available for accretion onto the…”