Particle acceleration in the superwinds of starburst galaxies

Abstract

Starbursts are galaxies undergoing massive episodes of star formation. The combined effect of stellar winds from hot stars and supernova explosions creates a high-temperature cavity in the nuclear region of these objects. The very hot gas expands adiabatically and escapes from the galaxy creating a superwind which sweeps matter from the galactic disk. The superwind region in the halo is filled with a multi-phase gas with hot, warm, cool, and relativistic components. The shocks associated with the superwind of starbursts and the turbulent gas region of the bubble inflated by them might accelerate cosmic rays up to high energies. In this work we calculate the cosmic ray production associated with the superwind using parameters that correspond to the nearby southern starburst galaxy NGC 253, which has been suggested as a potential accelerator of ultra-high energy cosmic rays. We evaluate the efficiency of both diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) and stochastic diffusive acceleration (SDA) in the superwind of NGC 253. We estimate the distribution of both hadrons and leptons and calculate the corresponding spectral energy distributions of photons. We find that the strong mass load of the superwind, recently determined through ALMA observations, strongly attenuates the efficiency of DSA in NGC 253, whereas SDA is constrained by the age of the starburst. We conclude that NGC 253 and similar starbursts can only accelerate iron nuclei beyond $\sim 10^{18}$ eV under very special conditions. If the central region of the galaxy harbors a starved supermassive black hole of $\sim 10^6$ $M_{\odot }$, as suggested by some recent observations, a contribution in the range $10^{18}-10^{19}$ eV can be present for accretion rates $\dot{m}\sim 10^{-3}$ in Eddington units. Only if very strong magnetic field amplification occurs close to the superwind shock energies of the order of 100 EeV might be achieved.

arXiv comment14 pages, 4 tables and 11 figures. Revised version (minor changes) accepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (71)

• Galactic Winds
• Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data
• Giant Gamma-ray Bubbles from Fermi-LAT: AGN Activity or Bipolar Galactic Wind?
• Energy spectra of gamma-rays, electrons and neutrinos produced at proton-proton interactions in the very high energy regime
• A New Model of the Galactic Magnetic Field
• Starburst-driven galactic winds: I. Energetics and intrinsic X-ray emission
• Observation of a Large-scale Anisotropy in the Arrival Directions of Cosmic Rays above $8\times 10^{18}$ eV
• On the magnetic fields and particle acceleration in Cas A
• GeV Observations of Star-forming Galaxies with \textit{Fermi} LAT
• Supernova feedback efficiency and mass loading in the starburst and galactic superwind exemplar M82
• Indications of Intermediate-Scale Anisotropy of Cosmic Rays with Energy Greater Than 57 EeV in the Northern Sky Measured with the Surface Detector of the Telescope Array Experiment
• Combined fit of spectrum and composition data as measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory
• The Galactic Magnetic Field
• Fine Structures of Shock of SN 1006 with the Chandra Observation
• Depth of Maximum of Air-Shower Profiles at the Pierre Auger Observatory: Composition Implications
• The Starburst-Driven Molecular Wind in NGC 253 and the Suppression of Star Formation
• Deriving global structure of the Galactic Magnetic Field from Faraday Rotation Measures of extragalactic sources
• A connection between star formation activity and cosmic rays in the starburst galaxy M 82
• Indication of anisotropy in arrival directions of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays through comparison to the flux pattern of extragalactic gamma-ray sources
• Distances to Nearby Galaxies in Sculptor
• Chandra observations of NGC 253. II: On the origin of diffuse X-ray emission in the halos of starburst galaxies
• Detection of Gamma Rays From a Starburst Galaxy
• Detection of Gamma-Ray Emission from the Starburst Galaxies M82 and NGC 253 with the Large Area Telescope on Fermi
• Stochastic Acceleration by Turbulence
• Simple analytical approximations for treatment of inverse Compton scattering of relativistic electrons in the black-body radiation field
• Velocity Field of Compressible MHD Turbulence: Wavelet Decomposition and Mode Scalings
• On The GeV & TeV Detections of the Starburst Galaxies M82 & NGC 253
• On the Momentum Diffusion of Radiating Ultrarelativistic Electrons in a Turbulent Magnetic Field
• Confirmation of strong magnetic field amplification and nuclear cosmic ray acceleration in SN 1006
• Evidence against star-forming galaxies as the dominant source of IceCube neutrinos
• Constraints on the Extremely High-Energy Cosmic Ray Accelerators from Classical Electrodynamics
• High-energy Particle Acceleration and Production of Ultra-high-energy Cosmic Rays in the Giant Lobes of Centaurus A
• Cosmic rays and the magnetic field in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 I. The distribution and transport of cosmic rays
• Cosmic rays and the magnetic field of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253
• Nonthermal particles and photons in starburst regions and superbubbles
• Newly-born pulsars as sources of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays
• Stochastic particle acceleration in the lobes of giant radio galaxies
• High energy gamma-ray emission from the starburst nucleus of NGC 253
• CRPropa 2.0 -- a Public Framework for Propagating High Energy Nuclei, Secondary Gamma Rays and Neutrinos
• Cosmic rays and the magnetic field in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253: II. The magnetic field structure
• Chandra Observations of the Evolving Core of the Starburst Galaxy NGC 253
• Heavy nuclei at the end of the cosmic ray spectrum?
• Spectral analysis and interpretation of the γ-ray emission from the Starburst galaxy NGC 253
• The Fermi Bubbles as Starburst Wind Termination Shocks
• Cosmic rays from remnants of quasars?
• The Stellar Kinematic Center and the True Galactic Nucleus of NGC253
• Cosmic ray production in supernovae
• What IceCube data tell us about neutrino emission from star-forming galaxies (so far)
• Far-infrared mapping of the starburst galaxy NGC 253 with ISOPHOT
• Acceleration of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in starburst superwinds
• Massive protostars as gamma-ray sources
• Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Acceleration in Engine-driven Relativistic Supernovae
• The nucleus of NGC 253 and its massive stellar clusters at parsec scales
• High Energy Emission from the Starburst Galaxy NGC253
• The diffuse gamma-ray flux associated with sub-PeV/PeV neutrinos from starburst galaxies
• Galactic outflow driven by the active nucleus and the origin of the gamma-ray emission in NGC 1068
• A critical shock Mach number for particle acceleration in the absence of pre-existing cosmic rays: $M=\sqrt{5}$
• Search for signatures of magnetically-induced alignment in the arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Star-forming galaxies as the origin of the IceCube PeV neutrinos
• Magnetic field amplification in supernova remnants
• Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic Ray Production by Turbulence in Gamma-Ray Burst Jets and Cosmogenic Neutrinos
• Cosmic Ray Acceleration by a Versatile Family of Galactic Wind Termination Shocks
• Starburst galaxies as seen by gamma-ray telescopes
• The Nuclear Window to the Extragalactic Universe
• Report of the Working Group on the Composition of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays
• The X/gamma-ray correlation in NGC 4945 and the nature of its gamma-ray source
• Turbulence-induced magnetic fields in shock precursors
• Scaling Relations of Starburst-Driven Galactic Winds
• Uncovering the nucleus candidate for NGC 253
• Transport of cosmic rays in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253
• Detection prospects of the Telescope Array hotspot by space observatories

Cited by in corpus (38)

• Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies
• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• Particle acceleration in astrophysical jets
• Cosmic ray transport and radiative processes in nuclei of starburst galaxies
• Acceleration of ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays in starburst superwinds
• Fornax A, Centaurus A and other radio galaxies as sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays
• Contribution of starburst nuclei to the diffuse gamma-ray and neutrino flux
• ASTRI Mini-Array Core Science at the Observatorio del Teide
• Starburst galaxies strike back: a multi-messenger analysis with Fermi-LAT and IceCube data
• The gamma-ray / infrared luminosity correlation of star-forming galaxies
• Multi-Messenger Physics with the Pierre Auger Observatory
• A Multi-Component Model for the Observed Astrophysical Neutrinos
• Exploring the physics behind the non-thermal emission from star-forming galaxies detected in gamma rays
• Unveiling the origin of the gamma-ray emission in NGC 1068 with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• High-energy processes in starburst-driven winds
• The filamentary radio lobes of the Seyfert-Starburst composite galaxy NGC3079
• Active Galactic Nuclei as potential Sources of Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
• Nonthermal processes in hot accretion flows onto supermassive black holes: An inhomogeneous model
• Testing hadronic and photo-hadronic interactions as responsible for UHECR and neutrino fluxes from Starburst Galaxies
• Extragalactic magnetic field constraints from ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from local galaxies
• Nonthermal radiation from the central region of super-accreting active galactic nuclei
• Modeling of Cosmic-Ray Production and Transport and Estimation of Gamma-Ray and Neutrino Emissions in Starburst Galaxies
• Cosmic rays from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253: the effect of a low luminosity active galactic nucleus
• Exploring the superwind mechanism for generating ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays using large-scale modeling of starbursts
• Cosmic rays, neutrinos and GeV-TeV gamma rays from Starburst Galaxy NGC 4945
• Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays from ultra-fast outflows of active galactic nuclei
• Emission from hadronic and leptonic processes in galactic jet-driven bubbles
• On energetics and progenitors of Odd Radio Circles: A causal connection with tidal disruption of stars?
• Cosmic-ray production from neutron escape in microquasar jets
• Nearby active galactic nuclei and starburst galaxies as sources of the measured UHECRs anisotropy signal
• The role of supernovae inside AGN jets in UHECR acceleration
• Energetic particles and high-energy processes in cosmological filaments and their astronomical implications
• The Nuclear Source of the Galactic Wind in NGC 253
• Simulated Radio and Neutrino Imaging of a Microquasar
• Echoes of the past: ultra-high energy cosmic rays accelerated by radio galaxies, scattered by starburst galaxies
• Solving the multi-messenger puzzle of the AGN-starburst composite galaxy NGC 1068
• Cosmic-ray electron propagation in NGC 3044 from radio continuum observations
• Hunting Star-Forming Galaxies in the Gamma-Ray Domain