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Astrophysics and Astronomy

Physical Sciences Publications

2009

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Discovery Of Very High Energy Gamma Rays From Pks 1424+240 And Multiwavelength Constraints On Its Redshift, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al Dec 2009

Discovery Of Very High Energy Gamma Rays From Pks 1424+240 And Multiwavelength Constraints On Its Redshift, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

We report the first detection of very high energy83Gamma-ray emission above 100 GeV. (VHE) gamma-ray emission above 140 GeV from PKS 1424+240, a BL Lac object with an unknown redshift. The photon spectrum above 140 GeV measured by VERITAS is well described by a power law with a photon index of 3.8 ± 0.5stat ± 0.3syst and a flux normalization at 200 GeV of (5.1 ± 0.9stat ± 0.5syst) × 10–11 TeV–1 cm–2 s–1, where stat and syst denote the statistical and systematical uncertainties, respectively. The VHE flux is steady over the observation period between MJD 54881 and 55003 (from …

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Simultaneous Multiwavelength Observations Of Markarian 421 During Outburst, P. T. Reynolds, Veritas, Magic Sep 2009

Simultaneous Multiwavelength Observations Of Markarian 421 During Outburst, P. T. Reynolds, Veritas, Magic

Physical Sciences Publications

We report on the results of two coordinated multiwavelength campaigns that focused on the blazar Markarian 421 during its 2006 and 2008 outbursts. These campaigns obtained UV and X-ray data using the XMM-Newton satellite, while the gamma-ray data were obtained utilizing three imaging atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes, the Whipple 10 m telescope and VERITAS, both based in Arizona, as well as the MAGIC telescope, based on La Palma in the Canary Islands. The coordinated effort between the gamma-ray groups allowed for truly simultaneous data in UV/X-ray/gamma-ray wavelengths during a significant portion of the XMM-Newton observations. This simultaneous coverage allowed for a …

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Detection Of Extended Vhe Gamma Ray Emission From G106.3+2.7 With Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al Aug 2009

Detection Of Extended Vhe Gamma Ray Emission From G106.3+2.7 With Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

We report the detection of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from supernova remnant (SNR) G106.3+2.7. Observations performed in 2008 with the VERITAS atmospheric Cherenkov gamma-ray telescope resolve extended emission overlapping the elongated radio SNR. The 7.3σ (pre-trials) detection has a full angular extent of roughly 06 by 04. Most notably, the centroid of the VHE emission is centered near the peak of the coincident 12CO (J = 1-0) emission, 04 away from the pulsar PSR J2229+6114, situated at the northern end of the SNR. Evidently the current-epoch particles from the pulsar wind nebula are not participating in the gamma-ray production. …

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Multiwavelength Observations Of Ls I+61 Degrees 303 With Veritas, Swift, And Rxte, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al. Aug 2009

Multiwavelength Observations Of Ls I+61 Degrees 303 With Veritas, Swift, And Rxte, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al.

Physical Sciences Publications

We present results from a long-term monitoring campaign on the TeV binary LSI +61° 303 with VERITAS at energies above 500 GeV, and in the 2-10 keV hard X-ray bands with RXTE and Swift, sampling nine 26.5 day orbital cycles between 2006 September and 2008 February. The binary was observed by VERITAS to be variable, with all integrated observations resulting in a detection at the 8.8σ (2006/2007) and 7.3σ (2007/2008) significance level for emission above 500 GeV. The source was detected during active periods with flux values ranging from 5% to 20% of the Crab Nebula, varying over the course …

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Detection Of The Bl Lacertae Object H1426+428 At Tev Gamma-Ray Energies, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al. Jun 2009

Detection Of The Bl Lacertae Object H1426+428 At Tev Gamma-Ray Energies, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al.

Physical Sciences Publications

A very high energy γ-ray signal has been detected at the 5.5 σ level from H1426+428, an X-ray-selected BL Lacertae object at a redshift of 0.129. The object was monitored from 1995 to 1998 with the Whipple 10 m imaging atmospheric Cerenkov telescope as part of a general blazar survey; the results of these observations, although not statistically significant, were consistently positive. X-ray observations of H1426+428 during 1999 with the BeppoSAX instrument revealed that the peak of its synchrotron spectrum occurs at greater than 100 keV, leading to the prediction of observable TeV emission from this object. H1426+428 was monitored …

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Observation Of Extended Very High Energy Emission From The Supernova Remnant Ic 443 With Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al Jun 2009

Observation Of Extended Very High Energy Emission From The Supernova Remnant Ic 443 With Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

We present evidence that the very high energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission coincident with the supernova remnant IC 443 is extended. IC 443 contains one of the best studied sites of supernova remnant/molecular cloud interaction and the pulsar wind nebula CXOU J061705.3+222127, both of which are important targets for VHE observations. VERITAS observed IC 443 for 37.9 hr during 2007 and detected emission above 300 GeV with an excess of 247 events, resulting in a significance of 8.3 standard deviations (σ) before trials and 7.5σ after trials in a point-source search. The emission is centered at 6h16m51s + …

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Veritas Observations Of The Bl Lac Object 1es 1218+304, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al. Apr 2009

Veritas Observations Of The Bl Lac Object 1es 1218+304, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al.

Physical Sciences Publications

The VERITAS collaboration reports the detection of very-high-energy gamma-ray emission from the high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object 1ES 1218+304 located at a redshift of z = 0.182. A gamma-ray signal was detected with a statistical significance of 10.4 standard deviations (10.4σ) for the observations taken during the first three months of 2007, confirming the discovery of this object made by the MAGIC collaboration. The photon spectrum between ~160 GeV and ~1.8 TeV is well described by a power law with an index of Γ = 3.08 ± 0.34stat ± 0.2sys. The integral flux is Φ(E>200GeV) = (12.2 ± 2.6) × …

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Veritas Observations Of A Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Flare From The Blazar 3c 66a, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al Feb 2009

Veritas Observations Of A Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Flare From The Blazar 3c 66a, P. T. Reynolds, Et Al

Physical Sciences Publications

The intermediate-frequency peaked BL Lacertae (IBL) object 3C 66A is detected during 2007-2008 in VHE (very high energy; E > 100 GeV) γ rays with the VERITAS stereoscopic array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. An excess of 1791 events is detected, corresponding to a significance of 21.2 standard deviations (σ), in these observations (32.8 hr live time). The observed integral flux above 200 GeV is 6% of the Crab Nebula's flux and shows evidence for variability on the timescale of days. The measured energy spectrum is characterized by a soft power law with photon index Γ = 4.1 ± 0.4stat ± …

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Investigating The Tev Morphology Of Mgro J1908+06 With Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al. Jan 2009

Investigating The Tev Morphology Of Mgro J1908+06 With Veritas, P. T. Reynolds, Et. Al.

Physical Sciences Publications

We report on deep observations of the extended TeV gamma-ray source MGRO J1908+06 made with the VERITAS very high energy gamma-ray observatory. Previously, the TeV emission has been attributed to the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) of the Fermi-LAT pulsar PSR J1907+0602. We detect MGRO J1908+06 at a significance level of 14 standard deviations (14σ) and measure a photon index of 2.20 ± 0.10stat ± 0.20sys. The TeV emission is extended, covering the region near PSR J1907+0602 and also extending toward SNR G40.5-0.5. When fitted with a two-dimensional Gaussian, the intrinsic extension has a standard deviation of σsrc = 0fdg44 ± …

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