2018ApJ...867L...6B

We present the first evidence for extragalactic hydrogen recombination line maser emission in the H26α transition toward the inner 13.5 pc nuclear region of the starburst galaxy NGC 253 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data. In regions with complex continuum emission (dust, free-free, and synchrotron) we propose to use the recombination line spectral index, α_L (S_L⋅Δv∝ν^α_L), between the H30α and the H26α lines to study the structure of ultra-compact H II regions and to identify maser emission (α_L > 2.1) from ionized winds. The measured values of α_L ranged from 1.0 to 2.9. The largest α_L can only be explained by maser emission. The measured flux density in the H26α maser in NGC 253 suggests that we are observing hundreds of stars like MWC349A, a prototypical stellar wind where maser emission arises from its circumstellar disk. We briefly discuss the implication of the detection of maser emission in starburst galaxies like NGC 253.