Discovery of VHE Gamma Radiation from IC443 with the MAGIC Telescope

We report the detection of a new source of very high energy (VHE, E_gamma >= 100GeV) gamma-ray emission located close to the Galactic Plane, MAGIC J0616+225, which is spatially coincident with SNR IC443. The observations were carried out with the MAGIC telescope in the periods December 2005 - January 2006 and December 2006 - January 2007. Here we present results from this source, leading to a VHE gamma-ray signal with a statistical significance of 5.7 sigma in the 2006/7 data and a measured differential gamma-ray flux consistent with a power law, described as dN_gamma/(dA dt dE) = (1.0 +/- 0.2)*10^(-11)(E/0.4 TeV)^(-3.1 +/- 0.3) cm^(-2)s^(-1)TeV^(-1). We briefly discuss the observational technique used and the procedure implemented for the data analysis. The results are put in the perspective of the multiwavelength emission and the molecular environment found in the region of IC443.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Letter

Variable Very High Energy Gamma-ray Emission from the Microquasar LS I +61 303

Microquasars are binary star systems with relativistic radio-emitting jets. They are potential sources of cosmic rays and laboratories for elucidating the physics of relativistic jets. Here we report the detection of variable gamma-ray emission above 100 gigaelectron volts from the microquasar LS I +61 303. Six orbital cycles were recorded. Several detections occur at a similar orbital phase, suggesting the emission is periodic. The strongest gamma-ray emission is not observed when the two stars are closest to one another, implying a strong orbital modulation of the emission or the absorption processes.Comment: 11 pages with 4 figure

Variable Very High Energy Gamma-ray Emission from the Microquasar LS I +61 303

Microquasars are binary star systems with relativistic radio-emitting jets. They are potential sources of cosmic rays and laboratories for elucidating the physics of relativistic jets. Here we report the detection of variable gamma-ray emission above 100 gigaelectron volts from the microquasar LS I +61 303. Six orbital cycles were recorded. Several detections occur at a similar orbital phase, suggesting the emission is periodic. The strongest gamma-ray emission is not observed when the two stars are closest to one another, implying a strong orbital modulation of the emission or the absorption processes.Comment: 11 pages with 4 figure

MAGIC upper limits on the GRB 090102 afterglow

Indications of a GeV component in the emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are known since the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope observations during the 1990s and they have been confirmed by the data of the Fermi satellite. These results have, however, shown that our understanding of GRB physics is still unsatisfactory. The new generation of Cherenkov observatories and in particular the MAGIC telescope, allow for the first time the possibility to extend the measurement of GRBs from several tens up to hundreds of GeV energy range. Both leptonic and hadronic processes have been suggested to explain the possible GeV/TeV counterpart of GRBs. Observations with ground-based telescopes of very high energy (VHE) photons (E &gt; 30 GeV) from these sources are going to play a key role in discriminating among the different proposed emission mechanisms, which are barely distinguishable at lower energies. MAGIC telescope observations of the GRB 090102 (z = 1.547) field and Fermi Large Area Telescope data in the same time interval are analysed to derive upper limits of the GeV/TeV emission. We compare these results to the expected emissions evaluated for different processes in the framework of a relativistic blastwave model for the afterglow. Simultaneous upper limits with Fermi and a Cherenkov telescope have been derived for this GRB observation. The results we obtained are compatible with the expected emission although the difficulties in predicting the HE and VHE emission for the afterglow of this event makes it difficult to draw firmer conclusions. Nonetheless, MAGIC sensitivity in the energy range of overlap with space-based instruments (above about 40 GeV) is about one order of magnitude better with respect to Fermi. This makes evident the constraining power of ground-based observations and shows that the MAGIC telescope has reached the required performance to make possible GRB multiwavelength studies in the VHE range.</p

Multifrequency studies of the peculiar quasar 4C+21.35 during the 2010 flaring activity

The discovery of rapidly variable Very High Energy ( VHE; E &gt; 100 GeV). - ray emission from 4C + 21.35 ( PKS 1222+ 216) by MAGIC on 2010 June 17, triggered by the high activity detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope ( LAT) in high energy ( HE; E &gt; 100 MeV). - rays, poses intriguing questions on the location of the. - ray emitting region in this flat spectrum radio quasar. We present multifrequency data of 4C + 21.35 collected from centimeter to VHE during 2010 to investigate the properties of this source and discuss a possible emission model. The first hint of detection at VHE was observed by MAGIC on 2010 May 3, soon after a gamma- ray flare detected by Fermi-LAT that peaked on April 29. The same emission mechanism may therefore be responsible for both the HE and VHE emission during the 2010 flaring episodes. Two optical peaks were detected on 2010 April 20 and June 30, close in time but not simultaneous with the two gamma- ray peaks, while no clear connection was observed between the X-ray and gamma- ray emission. An increasing flux density was observed in radio and mm bands from the beginning of 2009, in accordance with the increasing gamma- ray activity observed by Fermi-LAT, and peaking on 2011 January 27 in the mm regime ( 230 GHz). We model the spectral energy distributions ( SEDs) of 4C + 21.35 for the two periods of the VHE detection and a quiescent state, using a one-zone model with the emission coming from a very compact region outside the broad line region. The three SEDs can be fit with a combination of synchrotron self-Compton and external Compton emission of seed photons from a dust torus, changing only the electron distribution parameters between the epochs. The fit of the optical/UV part of the spectrum for 2010 April 29 seems to favor an inner disk radius of &lt; six gravitational radii, as one would expect from a prograde-rotating Kerr black hole.</p

Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: an advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy

Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has had a major breakthrough with the impressive results obtained using systems of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Ground-based gamma-ray astronomy has a huge potential in astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology. CTA is an international initiative to build the next generation instrument, with a factor of 5-10 improvement in sensitivity in the 100 GeV-10 TeV range and the extension to energies well below 100 GeV and above 100 TeV. CTA will consist of two arrays (one in the north, one in the south) for full sky coverage and will be operated as open observatory. The design of CTA is based on currently available technology. This document reports on the status and presents the major design concepts of CTA

Observations of Sagittarius A* during the pericenter passage of the G2 object with MAGIC

Context. We present the results of a multi-year monitoring campaign of the Galactic center (GC) with the MAGIC telescopes. These observations were primarily motivated by reports that a putative gas cloud (G2) would be passing in close proximity to the super-massive black hole (SMBH), associated with Sagittarius A*, located at the center of our galaxy. This event was expected to give astronomers a unique chance to study the effect of in-falling matter on the broad-band emission of a SMBH.Aims. We search for potential flaring emission of very-high-energy (VHE; >= 100 GeV) gamma rays from the direction of the SMBH at the GC due to the passage of the G2 object. Using these data we also study the morphology of this complex region.Methods. We observed the GC region with the MAGIC Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes during the period 2012-2015, collecting 67 h of good-quality data. In addition to a search for variability in the flux and spectral shape of the GC gamma-ray source, we use a point-source subtraction technique to remove the known gamma-ray emitters located around the GC in order to reveal the TeV morphology of the extended emission inside that region.Results. No effect of the G2 object on the VHE gamma-ray emission from the GC was detected during the 4 yr observation campaign. We confirm previous measurements of the VHE spectrum of Sagittarius A*, and do not detect any significant variability of the emission from the source. Furthermore, the known VHE gamma-ray emitter at the location of the supernova remnant G0.9+0.1 was detected, as well as the recently discovered VHE source close to the GG radio arc

The broad-band properties of the intermediate synchrotron peaked BL Lac S2 0109+22 from radio to VHE gamma-rays

The Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes observed S2 0109+22 in 2015 July during its flaring activity in high-energy gamma-rays observed by Fermi-Large Area Telescope. We analyse the MAGIC data to characterize the very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission of S2 0109+22, which belongs to the subclass of intermediate synchrotron peak (ISP) BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects. We study the multifrequency emission in order to investigate the source classification. Finally, we compare the source long-term behaviour to other VHE gamma-ray emitting (TeV) blazars. We performed a temporal and spectral analysis of the data centred around the MAGIC interval of observation (MJD 57225-57231). Long-term radio and optical data have also been investigated using the discrete correlation function. The redshift of the source is estimated through optical host-galaxy imaging and also using the amount of VHE gamma-ray absorption. The quasi-simultaneous multifrequency spectral energy distribution (SED) is modelled with the conventional one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model. MAGIC observations resulted in the detection of the source at a significance level of 5.3 sigma. The VHE gamma-ray emission of S2 0109+22 is variable on a daily time scale. VHE gamma-ray luminosity of the source is lower than the average of TeV BL Lacs. The optical polarization and long-term optical/radio behaviour of the source are different from the general population of TeV blazars. All these findings agree with the classification of the source as an ISP BL Lac object. We estimate the source redshift as z = 0.36 +/- 0.07. The SSC parameters describing the SED are rather typical for blazars

Broadband characterisation of the very intense TeV flares of the blazar 1ES 1959+650 in 2016

1ES 1959+650 is a bright TeV high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object exhibiting interesting features like "orphan" TeV flares and broad emission in the high-energy regime that are difficult to interpret using conventional one-zone Synchrotron Self-Compton (SSC) scenarios. We report the results from the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) observations in 2016 along with the multi-wavelength data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and Swift instruments. MAGIC observed 1ES 1959+650 with different emission levels in the very-high-energy (VHE, E> 100 GeV) gamma -ray band during 2016. In the long-term data, the X-ray spectrum becomes harder with increasing flux and a hint of a similar trend is also visible in the VHE band. An exceptionally high VHE flux reaching similar to 3 times the Crab Nebula flux was measured by MAGIC on the 13 and 14 of June, and 1 July 2016 (the highest flux observed since 2002). During these flares, the high-energy peak of the spectral energy distribution (SED) lies in the VHE domain and extends up to several TeV. The spectrum in the gamma -ray (both Fermi-LAT and VHE bands) and the X-ray bands are quite hard. On 13 June and 1 July 2016, the source showed rapid variations in the VHE flux within timescales of less than an hour. A simple one-zone SSC model can describe the data during the flares requiring moderate to large values of the Doppler factors (delta >= 30-60). Alternatively, the high-energy peak of the SED can be explained by a purely hadronic model attributed to proton-synchrotron radiation with jet power L-jet similar to 10(46) erg s(-1) and under high values of the magnetic field strength (similar to 100 G) and maximum proton energy (similar to few EeV). Mixed lepto-hadronic models require super-Eddington values of the jet power. We conclude that it is difficult to get detectable neutrino emission from the source during the extreme VHE flaring period of 2016

Measurement of the extragalactic background light using MAGIC and Fermi-LAT gamma-ray observations of blazars up to z=1

We present a measurement of the extragalactic background light (EBL) based on a joint likelihood analysis of 32 gamma-ray spectra for 12 blazars in the redshift range z = 0.03-0.944, obtained by the MAGIC telescopes and Fermi-LAT. The EBL is the part of the diffuse extragalactic radiation spanning the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared bands. Major contributors to the EBL are the light emitted by stars through the history of the Universe, and the fraction of it that was absorbed by dust in galaxies and re-emitted at longer wavelengths. The EBL can be studied indirectly through its effect on very high energy photons that are emitted by cosmic sources and absorbed via gamma gamma interactions during their propagation across cosmological distances. We obtain estimates of the EBL density in good agreement with state-of-the-art models of the EBL production and evolution. The 1 sigma upper bounds, including systematic uncertainties, are between 13 per cent and 23 per cent above the nominal EBL density in the models. No anomaly in the expected transparency of the Universe to gamma-rays is observed in any range of optical depth. We also perform a wavelength-resolved EBL determination, which results in a hint of an excess of EBL in the 0.18-0.62 mu m range relative to the studied models, yet compatible with them within systematics