New observations with gemini and GTC of the VHE blazar KUV 00311–1938: About its redshift and environment

Extragalactic very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) sources are unique objects to study the most powerful particle accelerators in nature, as active galactic nuclei are likely sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. BL Lacertae blazars are the most frequent extragalactic objects found in the VHE gamma-ray catalogs. It is very difficult to estimate their redshifts, considering they have no strong enough optical spectral features, hence ∼20% of them have unknown or poorly constrained redshifts. KUV 00311–1938 is a VHE BL Lacertae blazar, with an uncertain redshift in the range of 0.5 < z < 0.98. We have obtained deep spectroscopy using Gemini and the GTC telescopes of KUV 00311–1938 and its surroundings with high signal-to-noise ratio in 2016–2017. The lack of features did not allow us to determine the spectroscopic redshift of KUV 00311–1938; nevertheless, we obtain a lower limit of z ≳ 0.475. We determined the redshifts of 41 galaxies observed in the field-of-view of the blazar and through a population study, identified three pairs and four groups consisting of 3 or 4 members with redshifts in the range z = 0.1468–0.4756. Due to the absence of a large group of galaxies, we could not associate KUV 00311–1938 with any of the groups detected.Fil: Pichel, Ana Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; ArgentinaFil: Donzelli, Carlos Jose. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Departamento de Astronomia Extragalactica; ArgentinaFil: Rosa Gonzalez, D.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Instituto de Astronomía; México. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Instituto de Astronomía; MéxicoFil: Fernandez Alonso, Mateo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; ArgentinaFil: Rovero, Adrian Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio. - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio; ArgentinaFil: Muriel, Hernan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba. Instituto de Astronomía Teórica y Experimental; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Mayya, Y. D.. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica; MéxicoFil: Aretxaga, I.. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica; MéxicoFil: Becerra González, J.. Universidad de La Laguna; EspañaFil: Carramiñana, Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica; MéxicoFil: Mendez Abreu, J.. Universidad de La Laguna; EspañaFil: Vega, O.. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica; MéxicoFil: Terlevich, E.. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica; MéxicoFil: Terlevich, R. J.. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica; Méxic

The Telescopio San Pedro Mártir project

The Telescopio San Pedro Martir project intends to construct a 6.5m telescope to be installed at the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in the Sierra San Pedro Martir in northern Baja California, Mexico. The project is an association of Mexican institutions, lead by the Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica, Optica y Electronica and the Instituto de Astronomia at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, in partnership with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the University of Arizona's Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory. The project is currently in the planning and design stage. Once completed, the partners plan to operate the MMT and TSPM as a binational astrophysical observatory.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The High-Altitude water cherenkov (HAWC) observatory in México: The primary detector

The High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory is a second-generation continuously operated, wide field-of-view, TeV gamma-ray observatory. The HAWC observatory and its analysis techniques build on experience of the Milagro experiment in using ground-based water Cherenkov detectors for gamma-ray astronomy. HAWC is located on the Sierra Negra volcano in México at an elevation of 4100 meters above sea level. The completed HAWC observatory principal detector (HAWC) consists of 300 closely spaced water Cherenkov detectors, each equipped with four photomultiplier tubes to provide timing and charge information to reconstruct the extensive air shower energy and arrival direction. The HAWC observatory has been optimized to observe transient and steady emission from sources of gamma rays within an energy range from several hundred GeV to several hundred TeV. However, most of the air showers detected are initiated by cosmic rays, allowing studies of cosmic rays also to be performed. This paper describes the characteristics of the HAWC main array and its hardware.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Básicas::Facultad de Ciencias::Escuela de Físic

Combined dark matter searches towards dwarf spheroidal galaxies with Fermi-LAT, HAWC, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS

Cosmological and astrophysical observations suggest that 85\% of the total matter of the Universe is made of Dark Matter (DM). However, its nature remains one of the most challenging and fundamental open questions of particle physics. Assuming particle DM, this exotic form of matter cannot consist of Standard Model (SM) particles. Many models have been developed to attempt unraveling the nature of DM such as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), the most favored particle candidates. WIMP annihilations and decay could produce SM particles which in turn hadronize and decay to give SM secondaries such as high energy $\gamma$ rays. In the framework of indirect DM search, observations of promising targets are used to search for signatures of DM annihilation. Among these, the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are commonly favored owing to their expected high DM content and negligible astrophysical background. In this work, we present the very first combination of 20 dSph observations, performed by the Fermi-LAT, HAWC, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS collaborations in order to maximize the sensitivity of DM searches and improve the current results. We use a joint maximum likelihood approach combining each experiment's individual analysis to derive more constraining upper limits on the WIMP DM self-annihilation cross-section as a function of DM particle mass. We present new DM constraints over the widest mass range ever reported, extending from 5 GeV to 100 TeV thanks to the combination of these five different $\gamma$-ray instruments