@article{ArchambaultArcherBenbowetal.2016, author = {Archambault, S. and Archer, A. and Benbow, W. and Bird, R. and Biteau, Jonathan and Buchovecky, M. 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 Eisch, J. D. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Fortin, P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Gillanders, G. H. and Griffin, S. and Grube, J. and Gyuk, G. and Huetten, M. and Hakansson, Nils and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Humensky, T. B. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kelley-Hoskins, N. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, D. and Krause, M. and Krennrich, F. and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Maier, G. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Meagher, K. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nguyen, T. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pichel, A. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, A. and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Rovero, A. C. and Santander, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Smith, A. W. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tucci, J. V. and Tyler, J. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Weiner, O. M. and Weinstein, A. and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B. and Fumagalli, M. and Prochaska, J. X.}, title = {UPPER LIMITS FROM FIVE YEARS OF BLAZAR OBSERVATIONS WITH THE VERITAS CHERENKOV TELESCOPES}, series = {The astronomical journal}, volume = {151}, journal = {The astronomical journal}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, organization = {VERITAS Collaboration}, issn = {0004-6256}, doi = {10.3847/0004-6256/151/6/142}, pages = {19}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Between the beginning of its full-scale scientific operations in 2007 and 2012, the VERITAS Cherenkov telescope array observed more than 130 blazars; of these, 26 were detected as very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray sources. In this work, we present the analysis results of a sample of 114 undetected objects. The observations constitute a total live-time of similar to 570 hr. The sample includes several unidentified Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) sources (located at high Galactic latitude) as well as all the sources from the second Fermi-LAT catalog that are contained within the field of view of the VERITAS observations. We have also performed optical spectroscopy measurements in order to estimate the redshift of some of these blazars that do not have spectroscopic distance estimates. We present new optical spectra from the Kast instrument on the Shane telescope at the Lick observatory for 18 blazars included in this work, which allowed for the successful measurement or constraint on the redshift of four of them. For each of the blazars included in our sample, we provide the flux upper limit in the VERITAS energy band. We also study the properties of the significance distributions and we present the result of a stacked analysis of the data set, which shows a 4s excess.}, language = {en} } @article{AliuArlenAuneetal.2011, author = {Aliu, E. and Arlen, T. and Aune, T. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Boettcher, Markus and Bouvier, A. and Bradbury, S. M. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Cannon, A. and Cesarini, A. and Ciupik, L. and Collins-Hughes, E. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Dickherber, R. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Finley, J. P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gall, D. and Gillanders, G. H. and Godambe, S. and Griffin, S. and Grube, J. and Gyuk, G. and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Huan, H. and Hughes, G. and Hui, C. M. and Humensky, T. B. and Kaaret, P. and Karlsson, N. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, D. and Krawczynski, H. and Krennrich, F. and Madhavan, A. S. and Maier, G. and Majumdar, P. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Ong, R. A. and Orr, M. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pichel, A. and Pohl, Martin and Prokoph, H. and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Roache, E. and Rose, H. J. and Ruppel, J. and Saxon, D. B. and Schroedter, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Skole, C. and Smith, A. W. and Staszak, D. and Tesic, G. and Theiling, M. and Thibadeau, S. and Tsurusaki, K. and Tyler, J. and Varlotta, A. and Vincent, S. and Vivier, M. and Wakely, S. P. and Ward, J. E. and Weinstein, A. and Weisgarber, T. and Williams, D. A.}, title = {Veritas observations of unusual extragalactic transient swift J164449.3+573451}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters}, volume = {738}, 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 = {10.1088/2041-8205/738/2/L30}, pages = {5}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We report on very high energy (>100 GeV) gamma-ray observations of Swift J164449.3+573451, an unusual transient object first detected by the Swift Observatory and later detected by multiple radio, optical, and X-ray observatories. A total exposure of 28 hr was obtained on Swift J164449.3+573451 with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System ( VERITAS) during 2011 March 28-April 15. We do not detect the source and place a differential upper limit on the emission at 500 GeV during these observations of 1.4 x 10(-12) erg cm(-2) s(-1) (99\% confidence level). We also present time-resolved upper limits and use a flux limit averaged over the X-ray flaring period to constrain various emission scenarios that can accommodate both the radio-through-X-ray emission detected from the source and the lack of detection by VERITAS.}, language = {en} }