@article{WorseckDaviesHennawietal.2019, author = {Worseck, Gabor and Davies, Frederick B. and Hennawi, Joseph F. and Prochaska, J. Xavier}, title = {The Evolution of the He II-ionizing Background at Redshifts 2.3 < z < 3.8 Inferred from a Statistical Sample of 24 HST/COS He II Lyα Absorption Spectra}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {875}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/ab0fa1}, pages = {25}, year = {2019}, abstract = {We present measurements of the large-scale (≈40 comoving Mpc) effective optical depth of He ii Lyα absorption, \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\$, at 2.54 < z < 3.86 toward 16 He ii-transparent quasars observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, to characterize the ionization state of helium in the intergalactic medium (IGM). We provide the first statistical sample of \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\$ measurements in six signal-to-noise ratio gsim3 He ii sightlines at z > 3.5, and study the redshift evolution and sightline-to-sightline variance of \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\$ in 24 He ii sightlines. We confirm an increase of the median \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\$ from sime2 at z = 2.7 to \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\gtrsim 5\$ at z > 3, and a scatter in \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\$ that increases with redshift. The z > 3.5 He ii absorption is predominantly saturated, but isolated narrow (Δv < 650 km s-1) transmission spikes indicate patches of reionized helium. We compare our measurements to predictions for a range of UV background models applied to outputs of a large-volume (146 comoving Mpc)3 hydrodynamical simulation by forward-modeling our sample's quality and size. At z > 2.74, the variance in \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\$ significantly exceeds expectations for a spatially uniform UV background, but is consistent with a fluctuating radiation field sourced by variations in the quasar number density and the mean free path in the post-reionization IGM. We develop a method to infer the approximate median He ii photoionization rate \${{\rm{\Gamma }}}_{\mathrm{He}{\rm{II}}}\$ of a fluctuating UV background from the median \${\tau }_{\mathrm{eff}}\$, finding a factor sime5 decrease in \${{\rm{\Gamma }}}_{\mathrm{He}{\rm{II}}}\$ between z sime 2.6 and z sime 3.1. At z sime 3.1, \${{\rm{\Gamma }}}_{\mathrm{He}{\rm{II}}}=\left[{9.1}_{-1.2}^{+1.1}\,(\mathrm{stat}.){\,}_{-3.4}^{+2.4}\,(\mathrm{sys}.)\right]\times {10}^{-16}\$ s-1 corresponds to a median He ii fraction of sime2.5\%, indicating that our data probe the tail end of He ii reionization.}, language = {en} } @article{AbdallaAharonianBenkhalietal.2019, author = {Abdalla, Hassan E. and Aharonian, Felix A. and Benkhali, F. Ait and Ang{\"u}ner, Ekrem Oǧuzhan and Arakawa, M. and Arcaro, C. and Armand, C. and Arrieta, M. and Backes, M. and Barnard, M. and Becherini, Y. and Tjus, J. Becker and Berge, D. and Bernloehr, K. and Blackwell, R. and Bottcher, M. and Boisson, C. and Bolmont, J. and Bonnefoy, S. and Bordas, Pol and Bregeon, J. and Brun, F. and Brun, P. and Bryan, M. and Buchele, M. and Bulik, T. and Bylund, T. and Capasso, M. and Caroff, S. and Carosi, A. and Casanova, Sabrina and Cerruti, M. and Chakraborty, N. and Chand, T. and Chandra, S. and Chaves, R. C. G. and Chen, A. and Colafrancesco, S. and Condon, B. and Davids, I. D. and Deil, C. and Devin, J. and deWilt, P. and Dirson, L. and Djannati-Atai, A. and Dmytriiev, A. and Donath, A. and Doroshenko, V. and Dyks, J. and Egberts, Kathrin and Emery, G. and Ernenwein, J. -P. and Eschbach, S. and Fegan, S. and Fiasson, A. and Fontaine, G. and Funk, S. and Fuessling, M. and Gabici, S. and Gallant, Y. A. and Gate, F. and Giavitto, G. and Glawion, D. and Glicenstein, J. F. and Gottschall, D. and Grondin, M. -H. and Hahn, J. and Haupt, M. and Heinzelmann, G. and Henri, G. and Hermann, G. and Hinton, James Anthony and Hofmann, W. and Hoischen, Clemens and Holch, Tim Lukas and Holler, M. and Horns, D. and Huber, D. and Iwasaki, H. and Jacholkowska, A. and Jamrozy, M. and Jankowsky, D. and Jankowsky, F. and Jouvin, L. and Jung-Richardt, I. and Kastendieck, M. A. and Katarzynski, K. and Katsuragawa, M. and Katz, U. and Khangulyan, D. and Khelifi, B. and King, J. and Klepser, S. and Kluzniak, W. and Komin, Nu. and Kosack, K. and Kraus, M. and Lamanna, G. and Lau, J. and Lefaucheur, J. and Lemiere, A. and Lemoine-Goumard, M. and Lenain, J. -P. and Leser, Eva and Lohse, T. and Lopez-Coto, R. and Lorentz, M. and Lypova, I. and Malyshev, D. and Marandon, V. and Marcowith, Alexandre and Mariaud, C. and Marti-Devesa, G. and Marx, R. and Maurin, G. and Meintjes, P. J. and Mitchell, A. M. W. and Moderski, R. and Mohamed, M. and Mohrmann, L. and Moore, C. and Moulin, Emmanuel and Murach, T. and Nakashima, S. and de Naurois, M. and Ndiyavala, H. and Niederwanger, F. and Niemiec, J. and Oakes, L. and Odaka, H. and Ohm, S. and Ostrowski, M. and Oya, I. and Panter, M. and Parsons, R. D. and Perennes, C. and Petrucci, P. -O. and Peyaud, B. and Piel, Q. and Pita, S. and Poireau, V. and Noel, A. Priyana and Prokhorov, D. A. and Prokoph, H. and Puehlhofer, G. and Punch, M. and Quirrenbach, A. and Raab, S. and Rauth, R. and Reimer, A. and Reimer, O. and Renaud, M. and Rieger, F. and Rinchiuso, L. and Romoli, C. and Rowell, G. and Rudak, B. and Ruiz-Velasco, E. and Sahakian, V. and Saito, S. and Sanchez, David M. and Santangelo, A. and Sasaki, M. and Schlickeiser, R. and Schussler, F. and Schulz, A. and Schutte, H. and Schwanke, U. and Schwemmer, S. and Seglar-Arroyo, M. and Senniappan, M. and Seyffert, A. S. and Shafi, N. and Shilon, I. and Shiningayamwe, K. and Simoni, R. and Sinha, A. and Sol, H. and Specovius, A. and Spir-Jacob, M. and Stawarz, L. and Steenkamp, R. and Stegmann, Christian and Steppa, Constantin Beverly and Takahashi, T. and Tavernet, J. -P. and Tavernier, T. and Taylor, A. M. and Terrier, R. and Tiziani, D. and Tluczykont, M. and Trichard, C. and Tsirou, M. and Tsuji, N. and Tuffs, R. and Uchiyama, Y. and van der Walt, D. J. and van Eldik, C. and van Rensburg, C. and van Soelen, B. and Vasileiadis, G. and Veh, J. and Venter, C. and Vincent, P. and Vink, J. and Voisin, F. and Voelk, H. J. and Vuillaume, T. and Wadiasingh, Z. and Wagner, S. J. and Wagner, R. M. and White, R. and Wierzcholska, A. and Yang, R. and Yoneda, H. and Zaborov, D. and Zacharias, M. and Zanin, R. and Zdziarski, A. A. and Zech, Alraune and Ziegler, A. and Zorn, J. and Zywucka, N.}, title = {H.E.S.S. observations of the flaring gravitationally lensed galaxy PKS 1830-211}, series = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, volume = {486}, journal = {Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, number = {3}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, organization = {H E S S Collaboration}, issn = {0035-8711}, doi = {10.1093/mnras/stz1031}, pages = {3886 -- 3891}, year = {2019}, abstract = {PKS 1830-211 is a known macrolensed quasar located at a redshift of z = 2.5. Its highenergy gamma-ray emission has been detected with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument and evidence for lensing was obtained by several authors from its high-energy data. Observations of PKS 1830-211 were taken with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) array of Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes in 2014 August, following a flare alert by the Fermi-LAT Collaboration. The H.E.S.S observations were aimed at detecting a gamma-ray flare delayed by 20-27 d from the alert flare, as expected from observations at other wavelengths. More than 12 h of good-quality data were taken with an analysis threshold of similar to 67 GeV. The significance of a potential signal is computed as a function of the date and the average significance over the whole period. Data are compared to simultaneous observations by Fermi-LAT. No photon excess or significant signal is detected. An upper limit on PKS 1830-211 flux above 67 GeV is computed and compared to the extrapolation of the Fermi-LAT flare spectrum.}, language = {en} } @article{AliuArchambaultArlenetal.2014, author = {Aliu, E. and Archambault, S. and Arlen, T. and Aune, T. and Behera, B. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Berger, K. and Bird, R. and Bouvier, A. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Byrum, K. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, Xuhui and Ciupik, L. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Duke, C. and Dumm, J. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Federici, S. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Fortin, P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gillanders, G. H. and Griffin, S. and Griffiths, S. T. and Grube, J. and Gyuk, G. and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krawczynski, H. and Krennrich, F. and Lang, M. J. and Madhavan, A. S. and Maier, G. and Majumdar, P. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Meagher, K. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pohl, M. and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Sembroski, G. H. and Smith, A. W. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Theiling, M. and Varlotta, A. and Vassiliev, V. V. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Weekes, T. C. and Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Williams, D. A. and Zajczyk, A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {A three-year multi-wavelenght study of the very-high-energy gamma-ray Blazar 1ES 0229+200}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {782}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/782/1/13}, pages = {12}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @article{ArchambaultArlenAuneetal.2014, author = {Archambault, S. and Arlen, T. and Aune, T. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Bird, R. and Boettcher, Markus and Bouvier, A. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Ciupik, L. and Collins-Hughes, E. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Dickherber, R. and Dumm, J. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Federici, Simone and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gall, D. and Garson, A. III. and Gillanders, G. H. and Griffin, S. and Grube, J. and Gusbar, C. and Gyuk, G. and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Kaaret, P. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krawczynski, H. and Lamerato, A. and Lang, M. J. and Li, K. and Madhavan, A. S. and Maier, G. and Majumdar, P. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Orr, M. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Roustazadeh, P. and Saxon, D. B. and Sembroski, G. H. and Senturk, G. D. and Skole, C. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tesic, G. and Theiling, M. and Varlotta, A. and Vassiliev, V. V. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {Test of models of the cosmic infrared background with multiwavelength observations of the blazar 1ES 1218+30.4 IN 2009}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {788}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/788/2/158}, pages = {9}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We present the results of a multi-wavelength campaign targeting the blazar 1ES 1218+30.4 with observations with the 1.3 m McGraw-Hill optical telescope, the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE), the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, and the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS). The RXTE and VERITAS observations were spread over a 13 day period and revealed clear evidence for flux variability, and a strong X-ray and gamma-ray flare on 2009 February 26 (MJD 54888). The campaign delivered a well-sampled broadband energy spectrum with simultaneous RXTE and VERITAS very high energy (VHE, > 100 GeV) observations, as well as contemporaneous optical and Fermi observations. The 1ES 1218+30.4 broadband energy spectrum-the first with simultaneous X-ray and VHE gamma-ray energy spectra-is of particular interest as the source is located at a high cosmological redshift for a VHE source (z = 0.182), leading to strong absorption of VHE gamma rays by photons from the optical/infrared extragalactic background light (EBL) via gamma VHE +gamma EBL -> e(+) e(-)pair-creation processes. We model the data with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) emission model and with the extragalactic absorption predicted by several recent EBL models. We find that the observations are consistent with the SSC scenario and all the EBL models considered in this work. We discuss observational and theoretical avenues to improve on the EBL constraints.}, language = {en} } @article{WorseckProchaskaMcQuinnetal.2011, author = {Worseck, Gabor and Prochaska, J. Xavier and McQuinn, Matthew and Dall'Aglio, Aldo and Fechner, Cora and Hennawi, Joseph F. and Reimers, Dieter and Richter, Philipp and Wisotzki, Lutz}, title = {The end of Helium Reionization at z similar or equal to 2.7 Inferred from cosmic variance in HST/COS He II Ly alpha Absorption spectra}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters}, volume = {733}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {2041-8205}, doi = {10.1088/2041-8205/733/2/L24}, pages = {6}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We report on the detection of strongly varying intergalactic He II absorption in HST/COS spectra of two z(em) similar or equal to 3 quasars. From our homogeneous analysis of the He II absorption in these and three archival sightlines, we find a marked increase in the mean He II effective optical depth from similar or equal to 1 at z similar or equal to 2.3 to greater than or similar to 5 at z similar or equal to 3.2, but with a large scatter of 2 less than or similar to tau(eff, He II) less than or similar to 5 at 2.7 < z < 3 on scales of similar to 10 proper Mpc. This scatter is primarily due to fluctuations in the He II fraction and the He II-ionizing background, rather than density variations that are probed by the coeval Hi forest. Semianalytic models of He II absorption require a strong decrease in the He II-ionizing background to explain the strong increase of the absorption at z greater than or similar to 2.7, probably indicating He II reionization was incomplete at z(reion) greater than or similar to 2.7. Likewise, recent three-dimensional numerical simulations of He II reionization qualitatively agree with the observed trend only if He II reionization completes at z(reion) similar or equal to 2.7 or even below, as suggested by a large tau(eff, He II) greater than or similar to 3 in two of our five sightlines at z < 2.8. By doubling the sample size at 2.7 less than or similar to z less than or similar to 3, our newly discovered He II sightlines for the first time probe the diversity of the second epoch of reionization when helium became fully ionized.}, language = {en} } @article{Fechner2011, author = {Fechner, Cora}, title = {Reconstructing the intergalactic UV background with QSO absorption lines}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {532}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, issn = {0004-6361}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201117080}, pages = {15}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We present a new approach to observationally constraining the spectral energy distribution of the intergalactic UV background by studying metal absorption systems. We study single-component metal line systems that exhibit various well-measured species. Among the observed transitions, at least two ratios of ionization stages from the same element are required, e. g. C III/C IV and Si III/Si IV. For each system photoionization models are constructed by varying the spectrum of the ionizing radiation. The spectral energy distribution can then be constrained by comparing the models with the observed column density ratios. Extensive tests with artificial absorbers show that the spectrum of the ionizing radiation cannot be reconstructed unambiguously, but it is possible to constrain the main characteristics of the spectrum. Furthermore, the resulting physical parameters of the absorber, such as ionization parameter, metallicity, and relative abundances, may depend strongly on the adopted ionizing spectrum. Even in case of well-fitting models, the uncertainties can be as high as similar to 0.5 dex for the ionization parameter and up to similar to 1.5 dex for the metallicity. Therefore, it is essential to know the hardness of the UV background when estimating the metallicity of the intergalactic medium. Applying the procedure to a small sample of 3 observed single-component metal line systems yields a soft ionizing radiation at z > 2 and a slightly harder spectrum at z < 2. The resulting energy distributions exhibit strong He II Lya re-emission features, suggesting that reprocessing by intergalactic He II is important. Comparing the observed systems to UV background spectra from the literature indicates that a recent model that includes sawtooth modulation due to reprocessing by intergalactic He II with delayed helium reionization fits the investigated systems very well.}, language = {en} }