Extended and delayed emission around distant TeV sources induced by the
effects of propagation of gamma rays through the intergalactic medium can be
used for the measurement of the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF). We search
for delayed GeV emission from the hard-spectrum TeV blazar 1ES 0229+200 with
the goal to detect or constrain the IGMF-dependent secondary flux generated
during the propagation of TeV gamma rays through the intergalactic medium. We
analyze the most recent MAGIC observations over a 5 year time span and
complement them with historic data of the H.E.S.S. and VERITAS telescopes along
with a 12-year long exposure of the Fermi/LAT telescope. We use them to trace
source evolution in the GeV-TeV band over one-and-a-half decade in time. We use
Monte Carlo simulations to predict the delayed secondary gamma-ray flux,
modulated by the source variability, as revealed by TeV-band observations. We
then compare these predictions for various assumed IGMF strengths to all
available measurements of the gamma-ray flux evolution. We find that the source
flux in the energy range above 200 GeV experiences variations around its
average on the 14 years time span of observations. No evidence for the flux
variability is found in 1-100 GeV energy range accessible to Fermi/LAT.
Non-detection of variability due to delayed emission from electromagnetic
cascade developing in the intergalactic medium imposes a lower bound of
B>1.8e-17 G for long correlation length IGMF and B>1e-14 G for an IGMF of the
cosmological origin. Though weaker than the one previously derived from the
analysis of Fermi/LAT data, this bound is more robust, being based on a
conservative intrinsic source spectrum estimate and accounting for the details
of source variability in the TeV energy band. We discuss implications of this
bound for cosmological magnetic fields which might explain the baryon asymmetry
of the Universe.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted to A&A. Corresponding authors: Ievgen
Vovk, Paolo Da Vela (mailto:[email protected]) and Andrii Neronov
(mailto:[email protected]