We present deep VERITAS observations of the blazar PKS 1424+240, along with contemporaneous Fermi Large Area Telescope, Swift X-ray Telescope, and Swift UV Optical Telescope data between 2009 February 19 and 2013 June 8. This blazar resides at a redshift of z >= 0.6035, displaying a significantly attenuated gamma-ray flux above 100 GeV due to photon absorption via pair-production with the extragalactic background light. We present more than 100 hr of VERITAS observations over three years, a multiwavelength light curve, and the contemporaneous spectral energy distributions. The source shows a higher flux of (2.1 +/- 0.3) x 10(-7) photons m(-2) s(-1) above 120 GeV in 2009 and 2011 as compared to the flux measured in 2013, corresponding to (1.02 +/- 0.08) x 10-7 photons m(-2) s(-1) above 120 GeV. The measured differential very high energy (VHE; E >= 100 GeV) spectral indices are Gamma = 3.8 +/- 0.3, 4.3 +/- 0.6 and 4.5 +/- 0.2 in 2009, 2011, and 2013, respectively. No significant spectral change across the observation epochs is detected. We find no evidence for variability at gamma-ray opacities of greater than tau = 2, where it is postulated that any variability would be small and occur on timescales longer than a year if hadronic cosmic-ray interactions with extragalactic photon fields provide a secondary VHE photon flux. The data cannot rule out such variability due to low statistics.

Deep broadband observations of the distant gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240 / Archambault, S., Aune, T., Behera, B., Beilicke, M., Benbow, W., Berger, K., Bird, R., Biteau, J., Bugaev, V., Byrum, K., Cardenzana, J.V., Cerruti, M., Chen, X., Ciupik, L., Connolly, M.P., Cui, W., Dumm, J., Errando, M., Falcone, A., Federici, S., et al.. - In: THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS. - ISSN 2041-8205. - STAMPA. - 785:1(2014). [10.1088/2041-8205/785/1/L16]

Deep broadband observations of the distant gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240

BISSALDI, Elisabetta;FAVUZZI, Cecilia;GIGLIETTO, Nicola;
2014

Abstract

We present deep VERITAS observations of the blazar PKS 1424+240, along with contemporaneous Fermi Large Area Telescope, Swift X-ray Telescope, and Swift UV Optical Telescope data between 2009 February 19 and 2013 June 8. This blazar resides at a redshift of z >= 0.6035, displaying a significantly attenuated gamma-ray flux above 100 GeV due to photon absorption via pair-production with the extragalactic background light. We present more than 100 hr of VERITAS observations over three years, a multiwavelength light curve, and the contemporaneous spectral energy distributions. The source shows a higher flux of (2.1 +/- 0.3) x 10(-7) photons m(-2) s(-1) above 120 GeV in 2009 and 2011 as compared to the flux measured in 2013, corresponding to (1.02 +/- 0.08) x 10-7 photons m(-2) s(-1) above 120 GeV. The measured differential very high energy (VHE; E >= 100 GeV) spectral indices are Gamma = 3.8 +/- 0.3, 4.3 +/- 0.6 and 4.5 +/- 0.2 in 2009, 2011, and 2013, respectively. No significant spectral change across the observation epochs is detected. We find no evidence for variability at gamma-ray opacities of greater than tau = 2, where it is postulated that any variability would be small and occur on timescales longer than a year if hadronic cosmic-ray interactions with extragalactic photon fields provide a secondary VHE photon flux. The data cannot rule out such variability due to low statistics.
2014
Deep broadband observations of the distant gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240 / Archambault, S., Aune, T., Behera, B., Beilicke, M., Benbow, W., Berger, K., Bird, R., Biteau, J., Bugaev, V., Byrum, K., Cardenzana, J.V., Cerruti, M., Chen, X., Ciupik, L., Connolly, M.P., Cui, W., Dumm, J., Errando, M., Falcone, A., Federici, S., et al.. - In: THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS. - ISSN 2041-8205. - STAMPA. - 785:1(2014). [10.1088/2041-8205/785/1/L16]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11589/914
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