Discovery of GeV emission from the direction of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 2146
- School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093 (China)
Recent detections of high-energy gamma-ray emission from starburst galaxies M82 and NGC 253 suggest that starburst galaxies are huge reservoirs of cosmic rays and these cosmic rays convert a significant fraction of their energy into gamma-rays by colliding with the dense interstellar medium. In this paper, we report the search for high-energy gamma-ray emission from several nearby star-forming and starburst galaxies using the 68 month data obtained with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We found a ∼5.5σ detection of gamma-ray emission above 200 MeV from a source spatially coincident with the location of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 2146. Also taking into account the temporal and spectral properties of the gamma-ray emission, we suggest that the gamma-ray source is likely to be the counterpart of NGC 2146. The gamma-ray luminosity suggests that cosmic rays in NGC 2146 convert most of their energy into secondary pions, so NGC 2146 is a 'proton calorimeter'. It is also found that NGC 2146 obeys the quasi-linear scaling relation between gamma-ray luminosity and total infrared luminosity for star-forming galaxies, strengthening the connection between massive star formation and gamma-ray emission of star-forming galaxies. Possible TeV emission from NGC 2146 is predicted and the implications for high-energy neutrino emission from starburst galaxies are discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 22370514
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 794, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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