Deciphering the Archeological Record: Further Evidence for Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Ray Acceleration in Starburst-Driven Superwinds

Very recently, the Pierre Auger and Telescope Array collaborations reported strong evidence for a correlation between the highest energy cosmic rays and nearby starburst galaxies, with a global significance post-trial of $4.6\sigma$. It is well known that the collective effect of supernovae and winds from massive stars in the central region of these galaxies drives a galactic-scale superwind that can shock heat and accelerate ambient interstellar or circumgalactic gas. In previous work we showed that, for reasonable source parameters, starburst-driven superwinds can be the carriers of ultra-high-energy cosmic ray acceleration. In this paper we assess the extent to which one can approach the archaeological inverse'' problem of deciphering properties of superwind evolution from present-day IR emission of their host galaxies. We show that the Outer Limits galaxy NGC 891 could provide smoking gun evidence’’ for the starburst-driven superwind model of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.