Contribution from Star-Forming Galaxies to the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background Radiation

Abstract

We present a new theoretical calculation of the contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background radiation (EGRB) from star-forming galaxies, based on a state-of-the-art model of hierarchical galaxy formation that is in quantitative agreement with a variety of observations of local and high-redshift galaxies. Gamma-ray luminosity ($L_{\gamma }$) and spectrum of galaxies are related to star formation rate ($\psi$), gas mass ($M_{g}as$), and star formation mode (quiescent or starburst) of model galaxies using latest observed data of nearby galaxies. We try the two limiting cases about gamma-ray production: the escape limit ($L_{\gamma }\propto \psi M_{g}as$) and the calorimetric limit ($L_{\gamma }\propto \psi$), and our standard model predicts 7 and 4% contribution from star-forming galaxies to the total EGRB flux (including bright resolved sources) recently reported by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. Systematic uncertainties do not allow us to determine the EGRB flux better than by a factor of ~2. The predicted number of nearby galaxies detectable by Fermi is consistent with the observation. Intergalactic absorption by pair-production attenuates the EGRB flux only by a modest factor of ~1.3 at the highest Fermi energy band, and the reprocessed cascade emission does not significantly alter EGRB at lower photon energies. The sum of the known contributions from AGNs and star-forming galaxies can explain a large part of EGRB, with a remarkable agreement between the predicted model spectrum and observation.

9 pages, 6 figures, revised version, accepted for publication in ApJ

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