183 research outputs found
Search for TeV -rays from H1426+428 during 2004-07 with the TACTIC telescope
The BL Lac object H1426+428 () is an established source of TeV
-rays and detections of these photons from this object also have
important implications for estimating the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL)
in addition to the understanding of the particle acceleration and -ray
production mechanisms in the AGN jets. We have observed this source for about
244h in 2004, 2006 and 2007 with the TACTIC -ray telescope located at
Mt. Abu, India. Detailed analysis of these data do not indicate the presence of
any statistically significant TeV -ray signal from the source
direction. Accordingly, we have placed an upper limit of
on the integrated
-ray flux at 3 significance level.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures accepted for publication in Journal of Physics G:
Nuclear and Particle Physic
Very High Energy gamma-ray observations of Mrk 501 using TACTIC imaging gamma-ray telescope during 2005-06
In this paper we report on the Markarian 501 results obtained during our TeV
-ray observations from March 11 to May 12, 2005 and February 28 to May
7, 2006 for 112.5 hours with the TACTIC -ray telescope. During 2005
observations for 45.7 hours, the source was found to be in a low state and we
have placed an upper limit of 4.62 10 photons cm
s at 3 level on the integrated TeV -ray flux above 1 TeV
from the source direction. However, during the 2006 observations for 66.8h,
detailed data analysis revealed the presence of a TeV -ray signal from
the source with a statistical significance of 7.5 above
1 TeV. The time averaged differential energy spectrum of the
source in the energy range 1-11 TeV is found to match well with the power law
function of the form () with and .Comment: 16 pages and 8 Figures Accepted for publication in the Journal of
Physics
A connection between star formation activity and cosmic rays in the starburst galaxy M 82
Although Galactic cosmic rays (protons and nuclei) are widely believed to be
dominantly accelerated by the winds and supernovae of massive stars, definitive
evidence of this origin remains elusive nearly a century after their discovery
[1]. The active regions of starburst galaxies have exceptionally high rates of
star formation, and their large size, more than 50 times the diameter of
similar Galactic regions, uniquely enables reliable calorimetric measurements
of their potentially high cosmic-ray density [2]. The cosmic rays produced in
the formation, life, and death of their massive stars are expected to
eventually produce diffuse gamma-ray emission via their interactions with
interstellar gas and radiation. M 82, the prototype small starburst galaxy, is
predicted to be the brightest starburst galaxy in gamma rays [3, 4]. Here we
report the detection of >700 GeV gamma rays from M 82. From these data we
determine a cosmic-ray density of 250 eV cm-3 in the starburst core of M 82, or
about 500 times the average Galactic density. This result strongly supports
that cosmic-ray acceleration is tied to star formation activity, and that
supernovae and massive-star winds are the dominant accelerators.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures; published in Nature; Version is prior to
Nature's in-house style editing (differences are minimal
Discovery of Very High Energy Gamma Rays from 1ES 1440+122
The BL Lacertae object 1ES 1440+122 was observed in the energy range from 85
GeV to 30 TeV by the VERITAS array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes.
The observations, taken between 2008 May and 2010 June and totalling 53 hours,
resulted in the discovery of -ray emission from the blazar, which has a
redshift =0.163. 1ES 1440+122 is detected at a statistical significance of
5.5 standard deviations above the background with an integral flux of
(2.8) 10
cm s (1.2\% of the Crab Nebula's flux) above 200 GeV. The
measured spectrum is described well by a power law from 0.2 TeV to 1.3 TeV with
a photon index of 3.1 0.4 0.2.
Quasi-simultaneous multi-wavelength data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
(0.3--300 GeV) and the Swift X-ray Telescope (0.2--10 keV) are additionally
used to model the properties of the emission region. A synchrotron self-Compton
model produces a good representation of the multi-wavelength data. Adding an
external-Compton or a hadronic component also adequately describes the data.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA
VERITAS Upper Limit on the VHE Emission from the Radio Galaxy NGC 1275
The recent detection by the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope of high-energy
gamma-rays from the radio galaxy NGC 1275 makes the observation of the very
high energy (VHE: E > 100 GeV) part of its broadband spectrum particularly
interesting, especially for the understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN)
with misaligned multi-structured jets. The radio galaxy NGC 1275 was recently
observed by VERITAS at energies above 100 GeV for about 8 hours. No VHE
gamma-ray emission was detected by VERITAS from NGC 1275. A 99% confidence
level upper limit of 2.1% of the Crab Nebula flux level is obtained at the
decorrelation energy of approximately 340 GeV, corresponding to 19% of the
power-law extrapolation of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) result.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
VERITAS Upper Limit on the VHE Emission from the Radio Galaxy NGC 1275
The recent detection by the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope of high-energy
gamma-rays from the radio galaxy NGC 1275 makes the observation of the very
high energy (VHE: E > 100 GeV) part of its broadband spectrum particularly
interesting, especially for the understanding of active galactic nuclei (AGN)
with misaligned multi-structured jets. The radio galaxy NGC 1275 was recently
observed by VERITAS at energies above 100 GeV for about 8 hours. No VHE
gamma-ray emission was detected by VERITAS from NGC 1275. A 99% confidence
level upper limit of 2.1% of the Crab Nebula flux level is obtained at the
decorrelation energy of approximately 340 GeV, corresponding to 19% of the
power-law extrapolation of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) result.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
VERITAS Search for VHE Gamma-ray Emission from Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
Indirect dark matter searches with ground-based gamma-ray observatories
provide an alternative for identifying the particle nature of dark matter that
is complementary to that of direct search or accelerator production
experiments. We present the results of observations of the dwarf spheroidal
galaxies Draco, Ursa Minor, Bootes 1, and Willman 1 conducted by VERITAS. These
galaxies are nearby dark matter dominated objects located at a typical distance
of several tens of kiloparsecs for which there are good measurements of the
dark matter density profile from stellar velocity measurements. Since the
conventional astrophysical background of very high energy gamma rays from these
objects appears to be negligible, they are good targets to search for the
secondary gamma-ray photons produced by interacting or decaying dark matter
particles. No significant gamma-ray flux above 200 GeV was detected from these
four dwarf galaxies for a typical exposure of ~20 hours. The 95% confidence
upper limits on the integral gamma-ray flux are in the range 0.4-2.2x10^-12
photons cm^-2s^-1. We interpret this limiting flux in the context of pair
annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles and derive constraints on
the thermally averaged product of the total self-annihilation cross section and
the relative velocity of the WIMPs. The limits are obtained under conservative
assumptions regarding the dark matter distribution in dwarf galaxies and are
approximately three orders of magnitude above the generic theoretical
prediction for WIMPs in the minimal supersymmetric standard model framework.
However significant uncertainty exists in the dark matter distribution as well
as the neutralino cross sections which under favorable assumptions could
further lower the limits.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures, updated to reflect version published in ApJ.
NOTE: M.D. Wood added as autho
Discovery of very high energy gamma rays from PKS 1424+240 and multiwavelength constraints on its redshift
We report the first detection of very-high-energy (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 +- 0.5_stat +- 0.3_syst and a flux normalization
at 200 GeV of (5.1 +- 0.9_stat +- 0.5_syst) x 10^{-11} TeV^-1 cm^-2 s^-1, where
stat and syst denote the statistical and systematical uncertainty,
respectively. The VHE flux is steady over the observation period between MJD
54881 and 55003 (2009 February 19 to June 21). Flux variability is also not
observed in contemporaneous high energy observations with the Fermi Large Area
Telescope (LAT). Contemporaneous X-ray and optical data were also obtained from
the Swift XRT and MDM observatory, respectively. The broadband spectral energy
distribution (SED) is well described by a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton
(SSC) model favoring a redshift of less than 0.1. Using the photon index
measured with Fermi in combination with recent extragalactic background light
(EBL) absorption models it can be concluded from the VERITAS data that the
redshift of PKS 1424+240 is less than 0.66.Comment: accepted for publication, Ap
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