@article{AbeysekaraArcherBenbowetal.2018,
  author    = {Abeysekara, A. U. and Archer, A. and Benbow, Wystan and Bird, Ralph and Brose, Robert and Buchovecky, M. and Bugaev, V. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, Wei and Errando, Manel and Falcone, A. and Feng, Qi and Finley, John P. and Flinders, A. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, Amy and Gillanders, Gerard H. and Huetten, M. and Hanna, David and Hervet, O. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Johnson, Caitlin A. and Kaaret, Philip and Kar, P. and Kelley-Hoskins, N. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, David and Krause, Maria and Krennrich, F. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and Maier, Gernot and McArthur, S. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, Reshmi and Ong, R. A. and Park, N. and Perkins, Jeremy S. and Petrashyk, A. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, Alexis and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, Gregory T. and Roache, E. and Rulten, C. and Sadeh, I. and Santander, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, Karlen and Tyler, J. and Wakely, S. P. and Weiner, O. M. and Weinstein, A. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, David A. and Zitzer, B. and Vurm, Indrek and Beloborodov, Andrei},
  title     = {A Strong Limit on the Very-high-energy Emission from GRB 150323A},
  series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  volume    = {857},
  journal   = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.},
  address   = {Bristol},
  organization    = {VERITAS Collaboration},
  issn      = {0004-637X},
  doi       = {10.3847/1538-4357/aab371},
  pages     = {6},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {On 2015 March 23, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) responded to a Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) detection of a gamma-ray burst, with observations beginning 270 s after the onset of BAT emission, and only 135 s after the main BAT emission peak. No statistically significant signal is detected above 140 GeV. The VERITAS upper limit on the fluence in a 40-minute integration corresponds to about 1\% of the prompt fluence. Our limit is particularly significant because the very-high-energy (VHE) observation started only similar to 2 minutes after the prompt emission peaked, and Fermi-Large Area Telescope observations of numerous other bursts have revealed that the high-energy emission is typically delayed relative to the prompt radiation and lasts significantly longer. Also, the proximity of GRB 150323A (z = 0.593) limits the attenuation by the extragalactic background light to similar to 50\% at 100-200 GeV. We conclude that GRB 150323A had an intrinsically very weak high-energy afterglow, or that the GeV spectrum had a turnover below similar to 100 GeV. If the GRB exploded into the stellar wind of a massive progenitor, the VHE non-detection constrains the wind density parameter to be A greater than or similar to 3 x 10(11) g . cm(-1), consistent with a standard Wolf-Rayet progenitor. Alternatively, the VHE emission from the blast wave would be weak in a very tenuous medium such as the interstellar medium, which therefore cannot be ruled out as the environment of GRB 150323A.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{AbeysekaraArcherAuneetal.2018,
  author    = {Abeysekara, A. U. and Archer, A. and Aune, Taylor and Benbow, Wystan and Bird, Ralph and Brose, Robert and Buchovecky, M. and Bugaev, V. and Cui, Wei and Daniel, M. K. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Qi and Finley, John P. and Fleischhack, H. and Flinders, A. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, Amy and Gotthelf, Eric V. and Grube, J. and Hanna, David and Hervet, O. and Holder, J. and Huang, K. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Huetten, M. and Johnson, Caitlin A. and Kaaret, Philip and Kar, P. and Kelley-Hoskins, N. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, David and Krause, Maria and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and Maier, Gernot and McArthur, S. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, Reshmi and Ong, R. A. and Otte, Adam Nepomuk and Pandel, Dirk and Park, Nahee and Petrashyk, A. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, Alexis and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, Gregory T. and Roache, E. and Rousselle, J. and Rulten, C. and Sadeh, I. and Santander, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, Karlen and Tyler, J. and Vassiliev, V. V. and Wakely, S. P. and Ward, J. E. and Weinstein, A. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, David A. and Zitzer, B.},
  title     = {A Very High Energy gamma-Ray Survey toward the Cygnus Region of the Galaxy},
  series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  volume    = {861},
  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/aac4a2},
  pages     = {33},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {We present results from deep observations toward the Cygnus region using 300 hr of very high energy (VHE)gamma-ray data taken with the VERITAS Cerenkov telescope array and over 7 yr of high-energy.-ray data taken with the Fermi satellite at an energy above 1 GeV. As the brightest region of diffuse gamma-ray emission in the northern sky, the Cygnus region provides a promising area to probe the origins of cosmic rays. We report the identification of a potential Fermi-LAT counterpart to VER J2031+415 (TeV J2032+4130) and resolve the extended VHE source VER J2019+368 into two source candidates (VER J2018+367* and VER J2020+368*) and characterize their energy spectra. The Fermi-LAT morphology of 3FGL J2021.0+4031e (the Gamma Cygni supernova remnant) was examined, and a region of enhanced emission coincident with VER J2019+407 was identified and jointly fit with the VERITAS data. By modeling 3FGL J2015.6+3709 as two sources, one located at the location of the pulsar wind nebula CTB 87 and one at the quasar QSO J2015+371, a continuous spectrum from 1 GeV to 10 TeV was extracted for VER J2016+371 (CTB 87). An additional 71 locations coincident with Fermi-LAT sources and other potential objects of interest were tested for VHE gamma-ray emission, with no emission detected and upper limits on the differential flux placed at an average of 2.3\% of the Crab Nebula flux. We interpret these observations in a multiwavelength context and present the most detailed gamma-ray view of the region to date.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ArcherBenbowBirdetal.2018,
  author    = {Archer, A. and Benbow, Wystan and Bird, Ralph and Brose, Robert and Buchovecky, M. and Bugaev, V and Cui, Wei and Danie, M. K. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Qi and Finley, John P. and Flinders, A. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, Amy and Gillanders, Gerard H. and Huttens, M. and Hanna, David and Hervet, O. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Johnson, Caitlin A. and Kaaret, Philip and Kar, P. and Kelley-Hoskins, N. and Kieda, David and Krause, Maria and Krennrich, F. and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and McArthur, S. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, Reshmi and Nieto, Daniel and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Park, Nahee and Petrashyk, A. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, Alexis and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reynold, P. T. and Richards, Gregory T. and Roache, E. and Rulten, C. and Sadeh, I and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, Karlen and Tyler, J. and Wakely, S. P. and Weiner, O. M. and Weinstein, A. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, David A. and Brisken, W. F. and Pontrelli, P.},
  title     = {HESS J1943+213},
  series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  volume    = {862},
  journal   = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.},
  address   = {Bristol},
  organization    = {VERITAS Collaboration},
  issn      = {0004-637X},
  doi       = {10.3847/1538-4357/aacbd0},
  pages     = {15},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {HESS J1943+213 is a very high energy (VHE; > 100 GeV) gamma-ray source in the direction of the Galactic plane. Studies exploring the classification of the source are converging toward its identification as an extreme synchrotron BL Lac object. Here we present 38 hr of VERITAS observations of HESS J1943+213 taken over 2 yr. The source is detected with a significance of similar to 20 standard deviations, showing a remarkably stable flux and spectrum in VHE gamma-rays. Multifrequency Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of the source confirm the extended, jet-like structure previously found in the 1.6 GHz band with the European VLBI Network and detect this component in the 4.6 and 7.3 GHz bands. The radio spectral indices of the core and the jet and the level of polarization derived from the VLBA observations are in a range typical for blazars. Data from VERITAS, Fermi-LAT, Swift-XRT, the FLWO 48 ' telescope, and archival infrared and hard X-ray observations are used to construct and model the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the source with a synchrotron self-Compton model. The well-measured gamma-ray peak of the SED with VERITAS and Fermi-LAT provides constraining upper limits on the source redshift. Possible contribution of secondary gamma-rays from ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray-initiated electromagnetic cascades to the gamma-ray emission is explored, finding that only a segment of the VHE spectrum can be accommodated with this process. A variability search is performed across X-ray and gamma-ray bands. No statistically significant flux or spectral variability is detected.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{AbeysekaraBenbowBirdetal.2018,
  author    = {Abeysekara, A. U. and Benbow, Wystan and Bird, Ralph and Brill, A. and Brose, Robert and Buckley, J. H. and Chromey, A. J. and Daniel, M. K. and Falcone, A. and Finley, J. P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, Amy and Gent, A. and Gillanders, Gerald H. and Hanna, David and Hassan, T. and Hervet, O. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Kaaret, Philip and Kar, P. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, David and Krause, Maria and Krennrich, F. and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and Maier, Gernot and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, Reshmi and Ong, R. A. and Otte, Adam Nepomuk and Park, Nahee and Petrashyk, A. and Pohl, Martin and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Richards, Gregory T. and Roache, E. and Sadeh, I. and Santander, Marcos and Schlenstedt, S. and Sembroski, G. H. and Sushch, Iurii and Tyler, J. and Vassiliev, V. V. and Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, David A. and Williamson, T. J. and Zitzer, B. and Acciari, V. A. and Ansoldi, S. and Antonelli, L. A. and Engels, A. Arbet and Baack, D. and Babic, A. and Banerjee, B. and de Almeida, U. Barres and Barrio, J. A. and Becerra Gonzalez, Josefa and Bednarek, Wlodek and Bernardini, Elisa and Berti, A. and Besenrieder, J. and Bhattacharyya, W. and Bigongiari, C. and Biland, A. and Blanch, O. and Bonnoli, G. and Busetto, G. and Carosi, R. and Ceribella, G. and Cikota, S. and Colak, S. M. and Colin, P. and Colombo, E. and Contreras, J. L. and Cortina, J. and Covino, S. and Da Vela, P. and Dazzi, F. and De Angelis, A. and De Lotto, B. and Delfino, M. and Delgado, J. and Di Pierro, F. and Do Souto Espinera, E. and Dominguez, A. and Prester, D. Dominis and Dorner, D. and Doro, M. and Einecke, S. and Elsaesser, D. and Ramazani, V. Fallah and Fattorini, A. and Fernandez-Barral, A. and Ferrara, G. and Fidalgo, D. and Foffano, L. and Fonseca, M. V. and Font, L. and Fruck, C. and Galindo, D. and Gallozzi, S. and Lopez, R. J. Garcia and Garczarczyk, M. and Gasparyan, S. and Gaug, Markus and Giammaria, P. and Godinovic, N. and Guberman, D. and Hadasch, D. and Hahn, A. and Herrera, J. and Hoang, J. and Hrupec, D. and Inoue, S. and Ishio, K. and Iwamura, Y. and Kubo, H. and Kushida, J. and Kuvezdic, D. and Lamastra, A. and Lelas, D. and Leone, Francesco and Lindfors, E. and Lombardi, S. and Longo, Francesco and Lopez, M. and Lopez-Oramas, A. and Machado de Oliveira Fraga, B. and Maggio, C. and Majumdar, P. and Makariev, M. and Mallamaci, M. and Maneva, G. and Manganaro, M. and Mannheim, K. and Maraschi, L. and Mariotti, M. and Martinez, M. and Masuda, S. and Mazin, D. and Minev, M. and Miranda, J. M. and Mirzoyan, R. and Molina, E. and Moralejo, A. and Moreno, V. and Moretti, E. and Munar-Adrover, Pere and Neustroev, V. and Niedzwiecki, Andrzej and Rosillo, Mireia Nievas and Nigro, C. and Nilsson, Kari and Ninci, D. and Nishijima, K. and Noda, K. and Nogues, L. and Noethe, M. and Paiano, Simona and Palacio, J. and Paneque, D. and Paoletti, R. and Paredes, J. M. and Pedaletti, G. and Penil, P. and Peresano, M. and Persic, M. and Moroni, P. G. Prada and Prandini, E. and Puljak, I. and Garcia, J. R. and Rhode, W. and Ribo, Marc and Rico, J. and Righi, C. and Rugliancich, A. and Saha, Lab and Sahakyan, Narek and Saito, T. and Satalecka, K. and Schweizer, T. and Sitarek, J. and Snidaric, I. and Sobczynska, D. and Somero, A. and Stamerra, A. and Strzys, M. and Suric, T. and Tavecchio, Fabrizio and Temnikov, P. and Terzic, T. and Teshima, M. and Torres-Alba, N. and Tsujimoto, S. and van Scherpenberg, J. and Vanzo, G. and Vazquez Acosta, M. and Vovk, I. and Will, M. and Zaric, D.},
  title     = {Periastron Observations of TeV Gamma-Ray Emission from a Binary System with a 50-year Period},
  series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters},
  volume    = {867},
  journal   = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.},
  address   = {Bristol},
  organization    = {VERITAS Collaboration MAGIC Collaboration},
  issn      = {2041-8205},
  doi       = {10.3847/2041-8213/aae70e},
  pages     = {8},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {We report on observations of the pulsar/Be star binary system PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213 in the energy range between 100 GeV and 20 TeV with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array and Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov telescope arrays. The binary orbit has a period of approximately 50 years, with the most recent periastron occurring on 2017 November 13. Our observations span from 18 months prior to periastron to one month after. A new point-like gamma-ray source is detected, coincident with the location of PSR J2032+4127/MT91 213. The gamma-ray light curve and spectrum are well characterized over the periastron passage. The flux is variable over at least an order of magnitude, peaking at periastron, thus providing a firm association of the TeV source with the pulsar/Be star system. Observations prior to periastron show a cutoff in the spectrum at an energy around 0.5 TeV. This result adds a new member to the small population of known TeV binaries, and it identifies only the second source of this class in which the nature and properties of the compact object are firmly established. We compare the gamma-ray results with the light curve measured with the X-ray Telescope on board the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and with the predictions of recent theoretical models of the system. We conclude that significant revision of the models is required to explain the details of the emission that we have observed, and we discuss the relationship between the binary system and the overlapping steady extended source, TeV J2032+4130.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{FurnissWorseckFumagallietal.2019,
  author    = {Furniss, Amy and Worseck, Gabor and Fumagalli, Michele and Johnson, Caitlin A. and Williams, David A. and Pontrelli, P. and Prochaska, J. Xavier},
  title     = {Spectroscopic Redshift of the Gamma-Ray Blazar B2 1215+30 from Ly alpha Emission},
  series = {The astronomical journal},
  volume    = {157},
  journal   = {The astronomical journal},
  number    = {2},
  publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.},
  address   = {Bristol},
  issn      = {0004-6256},
  doi       = {10.3847/1538-3881/aaf28b},
  pages     = {4},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {We report on Cosmic Origin Spectrograph observations of the gamma-ray bright blazar B2 1215+30, collected in 2015 November. These observations allow for the confirmation of the source redshift from the detection of a Lyα emission feature at λ ~ 1374 {\AA}. The emission feature places the source at a redshift of z = 0.1305 ± 0.003, confirming the source's ground-based spectral measurement. The gamma-ray emission of the source is discussed in the context of the source distance, required for the accurate reconstruction of the intrinsic gamma-ray emission taking the absorption by the extragalactic background light into account. The source distance is found to be low enough that the previously reported detection of an exceptional flaring event from B2 1215+30 in 2014 cannot be used to investigate opacity-specific spectral and variability characteristics introduced by possible ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray propagation.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{BenbowBirdBrilletal.2019,
  author    = {Benbow, W. and Bird, R. and Brill, A. and Brose, Robert and Chromey, A. J. and Daniel, M. K. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Gillanders, G. H. and Giuri, C. and Gueta, O. and Hanna, D. and Halpern, J. P. and Hassan, Tarek and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Joyce, Amy M. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kelley-Hoskins, N. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, D. and Krause, M. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and Maier, Gernot and Matthews, N. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Nievas-Rosillos, M. and Ong, R. A. and Park, N. and Petrashyk, A. and Pohl, Martin and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, John and Ragan, K. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Rulten, C. and Sadeh, Iftach and Santander, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Sushch, Iurii and Wakely, S. P. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, David A. and Williamson, T. J.},
  title     = {Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters by the VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes},
  series = {Nature astronomy},
  volume    = {3},
  journal   = {Nature astronomy},
  number    = {6},
  publisher = {Nature Publ. Group},
  address   = {London},
  issn      = {2397-3366},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41550-019-0741-z},
  pages     = {511 -- 516},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {The angular size of a star is a critical factor in determining its basic properties1. Direct measurement of stellar angular diameters is difficult: at interstellar distances stars are generally too small to resolve by any individual imaging telescope. This fundamental limitation can be overcome by studying the diffraction pattern in the shadow cast when an asteroid occults a star2, but only when the photometric uncertainty is smaller than the noise added by atmospheric scintillation3. Atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes used for particle astrophysics observations have not generally been exploited for optical astronomy due to the modest optical quality of the mirror surface. However, their large mirror area makes them well suited for such high-time-resolution precision photometry measurements4. Here we report two occultations of stars observed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS)5 Cherenkov telescopes with millisecond sampling, from which we are able to provide a direct measurement of the occulted stars' angular diameter at the ≤0.1 mas scale. This is a resolution never achieved before with optical measurements and represents an order of magnitude improvement over the equivalent lunar occultation method6. We compare the resulting stellar radius with empirically derived estimates from temperature and brightness measurements, confirming the latter can be biased for stars with ambiguous stellar classifications.},
  language  = {en}
}