@article{AleksicAnsoldiAntonellietal.2015, author = {Aleksic, J. and Ansoldi, S. and Antonelli, L. A. and Antoranz, P. and Babic, A. and Bangale, P. and de Almeida, U. Barres and Barrio, J. A. and Gonzalez, J. Becerra and Bednarek, W. and Bernardini, E. and Biasuzzi, B. and Biland, A. and Blanch Bigas, O. and Boller, A. and Bonnefoy, S. and Bonnoli, G. and Borracci, F. and Bretz, T. and Carmona, E. and Carosi, A. 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 Caneva, G. and De Lotto, B. and Wilhelmi, E. de Ona and Mendez, C. Delgado and Prester, Dijana Dominis and Dorner, D. and Doro, M. and Einecke, S. and Eisenacher, D. and Elsaesser, D. and Fonseca, M. V. and Font, L. and Frantzen, K. and Fruck, C. and Galindo, D. and Lopez, R. J. Garcia and Garczarczyk, M. and Terrats, D. Garrido and Gaug, M. and Godinovic, N. and Munoz, A. Gonzalez and Gozzini, S. R. and Hadasch, D. and Hanabata, Y. and Hayashida, M. and Herrera, J. and Hildebrand, D. and Hose, J. and Hrupec, D. and Hughes, G. and Idec, W. and Kadenius, V. and Kellermann, H. and Knoetig, M. L. and Kodani, K. and Konno, Y. and Krause, J. and Kubo, H. and Kushida, J. and La Barbera, A. and Lelas, D. and Lewandowska, N. and Lindfors, E. and Lombardi, S. and Lopez, M. and Lopez-Coto, R. and Lopez-Oramas, A. and Lorenz, E. and Lozano, I. and Makariev, M. and Mallot, K. and Maneva, G. and Mankuzhiyil, N. and Mannheim, K. and Maraschi, L. and Marcote, B. and Mariotti, M. and Martinez, M. and Mazin, D. and Menzel, U. and Miranda, J. M. and Mirzoyan, R. and Moralejo, A. and Munar-Adrover, P. and Nakajima, D. and Niedzwiecki, A. and Nilsson, K. and Nishijima, K. and Noda, K. and Orito, R. and Overkemping, A. and Paiano, S. and Palatiello, M. and Paneque, D. and Paoletti, R. and Paredes, J. M. and Paredes-Fortuny, X. and Persic, M. and Moroni, P. G. Prada and Prandini, E. and Puljak, I. and Reinthal, R. and Rhode, W. and Ribo, M. and Rico, J. and Garcia, J. Rodriguez and Rugamer, S. and Saito, T. and Saito, K. and Satalecka, K. and Scalzotto, V. and Scapin, V. and Schultz, C. and Schweizer, T. and Sun, S. and Shore, S. N. and Sillanpaa, A. and Sitarek, J. and Snidaric, I. and Sobczynska, D. and Spanier, F. and Stamatescu, V. and Stamerra, A. and Steinbring, T. and Steinke, B. and Storz, J. and Strzys, M. and Takalo, L. and Takami, H. and Tavecchio, F. and Temnikov, P. and Terzic, T. and Tescaro, D. and Teshima, M. and Thaele, J. and Tibolla, O. and Torres, D. F. and Toyama, T. and Treves, A. and Uellenbeck, M. and Vogler, P. and Zanin, R. and Archambault, S. and Archer, A. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Berger, K. and Bird, R. and Biteau, Jonathan and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, Xiaoming and Ciupik, L. and Collins-Hughes, E. and Cui, W. and Eisch, J. D. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fortin, P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gillanders, G. H. and Griffin, S. and Gyuk, G. and Hakansson, Nils and Holder, J. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kertzman, M. and Kieda, D. and Lang, M. J. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Meagher, K. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pichel, A. and Pohl, Manuela and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Pueschel, Elisa and Ragan, K. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Rovero, A. C. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tucci, J. V. and Tyler, J. and Varlotta, A. and Wakely, S. P. and Welsing, R. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Buson, S. and Finke, J. and Villata, M. and Raiteri, C. and Aller, H. D. and Aller, M. F. and Cesarini, A. and Chen, W. P. and Gurwell, M. A. and Jorstad, S. G. and Kimeridze, G. N. and Koptelova, E. and Kurtanidze, O. M. and Kurtanidze, S. O. and Lahteenmaki, A. and Larionov, V. M. and Larionova, E. G. and Lin, H. C. and McBreen, B. and Moody, J. W. and Morozova, D. A. and Marscher, A. P. and Max-Moerbeck, W. and Nikolashvili, M. G. and Perri, M. and Readhead, A. C. S. and Richards, J. L. and Ros, J. A. and Sadun, A. C. and Sakamoto, T. and Sigua, L. A. and Smith, P. S. and Tornikoski, M. and Troitsky, I. S. and Wehrle, A. E. and Jordan, B.}, title = {Unprecedented study of the broadband emission of Mrk 421 during flaring activity in March 2010}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, volume = {578}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, organization = {MAGIC Collaboration, VERITAS Collaboration}, issn = {0004-6361}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201424811}, pages = {26}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Context. Because of its proximity, Mrk 421 is one of the best sources on which to study the nature of BL Lac objects. Its proximity allows us to characterize its broadband spectral energy distribution (SED). Aims. The goal is to better understand the mechanisms responsible for the broadband emission and the temporal evolution of Mrk 421. These mechanisms may also apply to more distant blazars that cannot be studied with the same level of detail. Methods. A flare occurring in March 2010 was observed for 13 consecutive days (from MJD 55 265 to MJD 55 277) with unprecedented wavelength coverage from radio to very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma-rays with MAGIC, VERITAS, Whipple, Fermi-LAT, MAXI, RXTE, Swift, GASP-WEBT, and several optical and radio telescopes. We modeled the day-scale SEDs with one-zone and two-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) models, investigated the physical parameters, and evaluated whether the observed broadband SED variability can be associated with variations in the relativistic particle population. Results. The activity of Mrk 421 initially was high and then slowly decreased during the 13-day period. The flux variability was remarkable at the X-ray and VHE bands, but it was minor or not significant at the other bands. The variability in optical polarization was also minor. These observations revealed an almost linear correlation between the X-ray flux at the 2-10 keV band and the VHE gamma-ray flux above 200 GeV, consistent with the gamma-rays being produced by inverse-Compton scattering in the Klein-Nishina regime in the framework of SSC models. The one-zone SSC model can describe the SED of each day for the 13 consecutive days reasonably well, which once more shows the success of this standard theoretical scenario to describe the SEDs of VHE BL Lacs such as Mrk 421. This flaring activity is also very well described by a two-zone SSC model, where one zone is responsible for the quiescent emission, while the other smaller zone, which is spatially separated from the first, contributes to the daily variable emission occurring at X-rays and VHE gamma-rays. The second blob is assumed to have a smaller volume and a narrow electron energy distribution with 3 x 10(4) < gamma < 6 x 10(5), where. is the Lorentz factor of the electrons. Such a two-zone scenario would naturally lead to the correlated variability at the X-ray and VHE bands without variability at the optical/UV band, as well as to shorter timescales for the variability at the X-ray and VHE bands with respect to the variability at the other bands. Conclusions. Both the one-zone and the two-zone SSC models can describe the daily SEDs via the variation of only four or five model parameters, under the hypothesis that the variability is associated mostly with the underlying particle population. This shows that the particle acceleration and cooling mechanism that produces the radiating particles might be the main mechanism responsible for the broadband SED variations during the flaring episodes in blazars. The two-zone SSC model provides a better agreement with the observed SED at the narrow peaks of the low-and high-energy bumps during the highest activity, although the reported one-zone SSC model could be further improved by varying the parameters related to the emitting region itself (delta, B and R), in addition to the parameters related to the particle population.}, language = {en} } @article{AbeysekaraArchambaultArcheretal.2017, author = {Abeysekara, A. U. and Archambault, S. and Archer, A. and Benbow, Wystan and Bird, Ralph and Buchovecky, M. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Byrum, K. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, X. and Ciupik, L. and Cui, W. and Dickinson, H. J. and Eisch, J. D. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Gillanders, G. H. and Griffin, S. and Grube, J. and Hutten, M. and Hakansson, N. and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Humensky, T. B. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. 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 Pelassa, V. 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 Rulten, C. and Santander, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tucci, J. V. and Tyler, J. and Wakely, S. P. and Weiner, O. M. and Weinstein, A. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Fegan, S. and Giebels, B. and Horan, D. and Berdyugin, A. and Kuan, J. and Lindfors, E. and Nilsson, K. and Oksanen, A. and Prokoph, H. and Reinthal, R. and Takalo, L. and Zefi, F.}, title = {A Luminous and Isolated Gamma-Ray Flare from the Blazar B2 1215+30}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {836}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, organization = {VERITAS Collaboration;Fermi-LAT Collaboration}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/205}, pages = {6}, year = {2017}, abstract = {B2 1215+30 is a BL-Lac-type blazar that was first detected at TeV energies by the MAGIC atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and subsequently confirmed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) observatory with data collected between 2009 and 2012. In 2014 February 08, VERITAS detected a large-amplitude flare from B2. 1215+30 during routine monitoring observations of the blazar 1ES. 1218+304, located in the same field of view. The TeV flux reached 2.4 times the Crab Nebula flux with a variability timescale of <3.6 hr. Multiwavelength observations with Fermi-LAT, Swift, and the Tuorla Observatory revealed a correlated high GeV flux state and no significant optical counterpart to the flare, with a spectral energy distribution where the gamma-ray luminosity exceeds the synchrotron luminosity. When interpreted in the framework of a onezone leptonic model, the observed emission implies a high degree of beaming, with Doppler factor delta > 10, and an electron population with spectral index p < 2.3.}, language = {en} } @article{ArchambaultArcherBenbowetal.2017, author = {Archambault, S. and Archer, A. and Benbow, W. and Buchovecky, M. and Bugaev, V. and Cerruti, M. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Falcone, A. and Alonso, M. Fernandez and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Griffin, S. and Hutten, M. and Hervet, O. and Holder, J. and Humensky, T. B. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kieda, D. and Krause, M. and Krennrich, F. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and Maier, G. and McArthur, S. and Moriarty, P. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Pohl, M. 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 Sadeh, I. and Shahinyan, K. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tyler, J. and Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Weisgarber, T. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {Search for Magnetically Broadened Cascade Emission from Blazars with VERITAS}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {835}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/835/2/288}, pages = {12}, year = {2017}, abstract = {We present a search for magnetically broadened gamma-ray emission around active galactic nuclei (AGNs), using VERITAS observations of seven hard-spectrum blazars. A cascade process occurs when multi-TeV gamma-rays from an AGN interact with extragalactic background light (EBL) photons to produce electron-positron pairs, which then interact with cosmic microwave background photons via inverse-Compton scattering to produce gamma-rays. Due to the deflection of the electron- positron pairs, a non-zero intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) would potentially produce detectable effects on the angular distribution of the cascade emission. In particular, an angular broadening compared to the unscattered emission could occur. Through non-detection of angularly broadened emission from 1ES 1218 vertical bar 304, the source with the largest predicted cascade fraction, we exclude a range of IGMF strengths around 10(-14) G at the 95\% confidence level. The extent of the exclusion range varies with the assumptions made about the intrinsic spectrum of 1ES. 1218+304 and the EBL model used in the simulation of the cascade process. All of the sources are used to set limits on the flux due to extended emission.}, language = {en} } @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{AbeysekaraBenbowBirdetal.2018, author = {Abeysekara, A. U. and Benbow, Wystan and Bird, Ralph and Brantseg, T. and Brose, Robert and Buchovecky, M. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, Wei and Daniel, M. K. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Qi and Finley, John P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, Amy and Gillanders, Gerard H. and Gunawardhana, Isuru 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 Kertzman, M. and Krennrich, F. and Lang, M. J. and Lin, T. T. Y. and McArthur, S. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, Reshmi and Ong, R. A. and Otte, Adam Nepomuk and Park, N. and Petrashyk, A. and Pohl, Martin 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 Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B. and Jorstad, Svetlana G. and Marscher, Alan P. and Lister, Matthew L. and Kovalev, Yuri Y. and Pushkarev, A. B. and Savolainen, Tuomas and Agudo, I. and Molina, S. N. and Gomez, J. L. and Larionov, Valeri M. and Borman, G. A. and Mokrushina, A. A. and Tornikoski, Merja and Lahteenmaki, A. and Chamani, W. and Enestam, S. and Kiehlmann, S. and Hovatta, Talvikki and Smith, P. S. and Pontrelli, P.}, title = {Multiwavelength Observations of the Blazar BL Lacertae}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {856}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, number = {2}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, organization = {VERITAS Collaboration}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aab35c}, pages = {14}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Combined with measurements made by very-long-baseline interferometry, the observations of fast TeV gamma-ray flares probe the structure and emission mechanism of blazar jets. However, only a handful of such flares have been detected to date, and only within the last few years have these flares been observed from lower-frequency-peaked BL. Lac objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars. We report on a fast TeV gamma-ray flare from the blazar BL. Lacertae observed by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS). with a rise time of similar to 2.3 hr and a decay time of similar to 36 min. The peak flux above 200 GeV is (4.2 +/- 0.6) x 10(-6) photon m(-2) s(-1) measured with a 4-minute-binned light curve, corresponding to similar to 180\% of the flux that is observed from the Crab Nebula above the same energy threshold. Variability contemporaneous with the TeV gamma-ray flare was observed in GeV gamma-ray, X-ray, and optical flux, as well as in optical and radio polarization. Additionally, a possible moving emission feature with superluminal apparent velocity was identified in Very Long Baseline Array observations at 43 GHz, potentially passing the radio core of the jet around the time of the gamma-ray flare. We discuss the constraints on the size, Lorentz factor, and location of the emitting region of the flare, and the interpretations with several theoretical models that invoke relativistic plasma passing stationary shocks.}, language = {en} }