Gamma Rays from Centaurus A

TL;DR

This paper examines whether proton-proton interactions alone can explain gamma-ray emissions from Centaurus A, highlighting the need for additional mechanisms and future multi-messenger observations for better understanding.

Contribution

It demonstrates that proton-proton interactions alone cannot fully account for gamma-ray data from Centaurus A, suggesting other mechanisms are involved.

Findings

Proton-proton interactions are insufficient to explain observed gamma rays.

Additional gamma-ray production mechanisms are needed inside Centaurus A.

Future combined gamma-ray and cosmic ray observations could improve source understanding.

Abstract

Centaurus A, the cosmic ray accelerator a few Mpc away from us is possibly one of the nearest sources of extremely high energy cosmic rays. We investigate whether the gamma ray data currently available from Centaurus A in the GeV-TeV energy band can be explained with only proton proton interactions. We show that for a single power law proton spectrum, mechanisms of $\gamma$-ray production other than proton proton interactions are needed inside this radio-galaxy to explain the gamma ray flux observed by EGRET, upper limits by H.E.S.S./CANGAROO-III and the correlated extremely energetic cosmic ray events observed by the Pierre Auger experiment. In future with better $\gamma$-ray data, simultaneous observation with $\gamma$-ray and cosmic ray detectors, it would be possible to carry out such studies on different sources in more detail.