High energy γ-ray emission from the starburst nucleus of NGC 253

¹ Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE), Edifici C-n, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
² Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, L-413, Livermore, CA 94550, USA

Received: 10 June 2005
Accepted: 9 August 2005

Abstract

Both the high density medium that characterizes the central regions of starburst galaxies and its power to accelerate particles up to relativistic energies make these objects good candidates for γ-ray sources. In this paper we present a self-consistent model of the multifrequency emission of the starburst galaxy NGC 253 from radio to γ-rays. The model agrees with all current measurements and provides predictions for the high energy behavior of the NGC 253 central region. In particular, we discuss prospects for observations with the HESS array (and comparison with their recently obtained data) and GLAST satellite.