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Molecular abundances are sensitive to UV-photon flux and cosmic-ray ionization rate. In starburst environments, the effects of high-energy photons and particles are expected to be stronger. We examine these astrochemical signatures through multiple transitions of HCO$^+$ and its metastable isomer HOC$^+$ in the center of the starburst galaxy NGC 253 using data from the ALMA large program ALCHEMI. The distribution of the HOC$^+$(1-0) integrated intensity shows its association with superbubbles, cavities created either by supernovae or expanding HII regions. The observed HCO$^+$/HOC$^+$ abundance ratios are $sim 10-150$, and the fractional abundance of HOC$^+$ relative to H$_2$ is $sim 1.5times 10^{-11} - 6times 10^{-10}$, which implies that the HOC$^+$ abundance in the center of NGC 253 is significantly higher than in quiescent spiral-arm dark clouds in the Galaxy and the Galactic center clouds. Comparison with chemical models implies either an interstellar radiation field of $G_0gtrsim 10^3$ if the maximum visual extinction is $gtrsim 5$, or a cosmic-ray ionization rate of $zeta gtrsim 10^{-14}$ s$^{-1}$ (3-4 orders of magnitude higher than that within clouds in the Galactic spiral-arms) to reproduce the observed results. From the difference in formation routes of HOC$^+$, we propose that a low-excitation line of HOC$^+$ traces cosmic-ray dominated regions, while high-excitation lines trace photodissociation regions. Our results suggest that the interstellar medium in the center of NGC 253 is significantly affected by energy input from UV-photons and cosmic rays, sources of energy feedback.
Observations of chemical species can provide an insight into the physical conditions of the emitting gas but it is important to understand how their abundances and excitation vary within different heating environments. C$_2$H is a molecule typically
NGC 253 hosts the nearest nuclear starburst. Previous observations show a region rich in molecular gas, with dense clouds associated with recent star formation. We used ALMA to image the 350 GHz dust continuum and molecular line emission from this re
Very-high-energy (VHE; E >100 GeV) and high-energy (HE; 100 MeV < E < 100 GeV) data from gamma-ray observations performed with the H.E.S.S. telescope array and the Fermi-LAT instrument, respectively, are analysed in order to investigate the non-therm
We present submillimeter spectra of the (proto-)super star cluster (SSC) candidates in the starbursting center of the nearby galaxy NGC 253 identified by Leroy et al. (2018). The 2.5pc resolution of our ALMA cycle 3 observations approach the size of
We present a study of the young population in the starburst galaxy NGC 253. In particular, we focused our attention on searching young star groups, obtaining their main properties and studying their hierarchical organization. For this task, we used m