@article{AhnenAnsoldiAntonellietal.2018, author = {Ahnen, M. L. and Ansoldi, S. and Antonelli, L. A. and Arcaro, C. and Babic, A. and Banerjee, B. and Bangale, P. and Barres de Almeida, U. and Barrio, J. A. and Gonzalez, J. Becerra and Bednarek, W. and Bernardini, E. and Berti, A. and Bhattacharyya, W. and Blanch, O. and Bonnoli, G. and Carosi, R. and Carosi, A. and Chatterjee, A. and Colak, S. M. and Colin, P. and Colombo, E. and Contreras, J. L. and Cortina, J. and Covino, S. and Cumani, P. and Da Vela, P. and Dazzi, F. and De Angelis, A. and De Lotto, B. and Delfino, M. and Delgado, Jose Miguel Martins and Di Pierro, F. and Doert, M. and Dominguez, A. and Prester, D. Dominis and Doro, M. and Glawion, D. Eisenacher and Engelkemeier, M. and Ramazani, V. Fallah and Fernandez-Barral, A. and Fidalgo, D. and Fonseca, M. V. and Font, L. and Fruck, C. and Galindo, D. and Lopez, R. J. Garcia and Garczarczyk, M. and Gaug, M. and Giammaria, P. and Godinovic, N. and Gora, D. and Guberman, D. and Hadasch, D. and Hahn, A. and Hassan, T. and Hayashida, M. and Herrera, J. and Hose, J. and Hrupec, D. and Ishio, K. and Konno, Y. and Kubo, H. and Kushida, J. and Kuvezdic, D. and Lelas, D. and Lindfors, E. and Lombardi, S. and Longo, F. and Lopez, M. and Maggio, C. and Majumdar, P. and Makariev, M. and Maneva, G. and Manganaro, M. and Maraschi, L. and Mariotti, M. and Martinez, M. and Mazin, D. and Menzel, U. and Minev, M. and Miranda, J. M. and Mirzoyan, R. and Moralejo, A. and Moreno, V. and Moretti, E. and Nagayoshi, T. and Neustroev, V. and Niedzwiecki, A. and Nievas Rosillo, M. and Nigro, C. and Nilsson, K. and Ninci, D. and Nishijima, K. and Noda, K. and Nogues, L. and Paiano, S. and Palacio, J. and Paneque, D. and Paoletti, R. and Paredes, J. M. and Pedaletti, G. and Peresano, M. and Perri, L. and Persic, M. and Moroni, P. G. Prada and Prandini, E. and Puljak, I. and Garcia, J. R. and Reichardt, I. and Ribo, M. and Rico, J. and Righi, C. and Rugliancich, A. and Saito, T. and Satalecka, K. and Schroeder, S. and Schweizer, T. and Shore, S. N. and Sitarek, J. and Snidaric, I. and Sobczynska, D. and Stamerra, A. and Strzys, M. and Suric, T. and Takalo, L. and Tavecchio, F. and Temnikov, P. and Terzic, T. and Teshima, M. and Torres-Alba, N. and Treves, A. and Tsujimoto, S. and Vanzo, G. and Vazquez Acosta, M. and Vovk, I. and Ward, J. E. and Will, M. and Zaric, D. and Arbet-Engels, A. and Baack, D. and Balbo, M. and Biland, A. and Blank, M. and Bretz, T. and Bruegge, K. and Bulinski, M. and Buss, J. and Dmytriiev, A. and Dorner, D. and Einecke, S. and Elsaesser, D. and Herbst, T. and Hildebrand, D. and Kortmann, L. and Linhoff, L. and Mahlke, M. and Mannheim, K. and Mueller, S. A. and Neise, D. and Neronov, A. and Noethe, M. and Oberkirch, J. and Paravac, A. and Rhode, W. and Schleicher, B. and Schulz, F. and Sedlaczek, K. and Shukla, A. and Sliusar, V. and Walter, R. and Archer, A. and Benbow, W. and Bird, R. and Brose, Robert and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Christiansen, J. L. and Cui, W. and Daniel, M. K. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Gillanders, G. H. and Gueta, O. and Hanna, D. and Hervet, O. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Huetten, M. 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 Lin, T. T. Y. and Maier, G. and McArthur, S. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Petrashyk, A. and Pichel, A. and Pohl, Martin and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Rovero, A. C. and Rulten, C. and Sadeh, I. and Santander, M. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Sushch, Iurii and Tyler, J. and Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Wells, R. M. and Wilcox, P. and Wilhel, A. and Williams, D. A. and Williamson, T. J. and Zitzer, B. and Perri, M. and Verrecchia, F. and Leto, C. and Villata, M. and Raiteri, C. M. and Jorstad, S. G. and Larionov, V. M. and Blinov, D. A. and Grishina, T. S. and Kopatskaya, E. N. and Larionova, E. G. and Nikiforova, A. A. and Morozova, D. A. and Troitskaya, Yu. V. and Troitsky, I. S. and Kurtanidze, O. M. and Nikolashvili, M. G. and Kurtanidze, S. O. and Kimeridze, G. N. and Chigladze, R. A. and Strigachev, A. and Sadun, A. C.}, title = {Extreme HBL behavior of Markarian 501 during 2012}, series = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal / European Southern Observatory (ESO)}, volume = {620}, journal = {Astronomy and astrophysics : an international weekly journal / European Southern Observatory (ESO)}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, address = {Les Ulis}, organization = {MAGIC Collaboration FACT Collaboration VERITAS Collaboration}, issn = {1432-0746}, doi = {10.1051/0004-6361/201833704}, pages = {23}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Aims. We aim to characterize the multiwavelength emission from Markarian 501 (Mrk 501), quantify the energy-dependent variability, study the potential multiband correlations, and describe the temporal evolution of the broadband emission within leptonic theoretical scenarios. Methods. We organized a multiwavelength campaign to take place between March and July of 2012. Excellent temporal coverage was obtained with more than 25 instruments, including the MAGIC, FACT and VERITAS Cherenkov telescopes, the instruments on board the Swift and Fermi spacecraft, and the telescopes operated by the GASP-WEBT collaboration. Results. Mrk 501 showed a very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray flux above 0.2 TeV of similar to 0.5 times the Crab Nebula flux (CU) for most of the campaign. The highest activity occurred on 2012 June 9, when the VHE flux was similar to 3 CU, and the peak of the high-energy spectral component was found to be at similar to 2 TeV. Both the X-ray and VHE gamma-ray spectral slopes were measured to be extremely hard, with spectral indices <2 during most of the observing campaign, regardless of the X-ray and VHE flux. This study reports the hardest Mrk 501 VHE spectra measured to date. The fractional variability was found to increase with energy, with the highest variability occurring at VHE. Using the complete data set, we found correlation between the X-ray and VHE bands; however, if the June 9 flare is excluded, the correlation disappears (significance <3 sigma) despite the existence of substantial variability in the X-ray and VHE bands throughout the campaign. Conclusions. The unprecedentedly hard X-ray and VHE spectra measured imply that their low- and high-energy components peaked above 5 keV and 0.5 TeV, respectively, during a large fraction of the observing campaign, and hence that Mrk 501 behaved like an extreme high-frequency-peaked blazar (EHBL) throughout the 2012 observing season. This suggests that being an EHBL may not be a permanent characteristic of a blazar, but rather a state which may change over time. The data set acquired shows that the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) of Mrk 501, and its transient evolution, is very complex, requiring, within the framework of synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) models, various emission regions for a satisfactory description. Nevertheless the one-zone SSC scenario can successfully describe the segments of the SED where most energy is emitted, with a significant correlation between the electron energy density and the VHE gamma-ray activity, suggesting that most of the variability may be explained by the injection of high-energy electrons. The one-zone SSC scenario used reproduces the behavior seen between the measured X-ray and VHE gamma-ray fluxes, and predicts that the correlation becomes stronger with increasing energy of the X-rays.}, language = {en} } @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{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{ArcherBarnackaBeilickeetal.2014, author = {Archer, A. and Barnacka, Anna and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Berger, K. and Bird, R. and Biteau, Jonathan and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Byrum, K. and Cardenzana, J. V. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, W. and Chen, Xiaoming and Ciupik, L. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Dickinson, H. J. and Dumm, J. and Eisch, J. D. and Falcone, A. and Federici, Simone and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Griffin, S. and Griffiths, S. T. and Grube, J. and Gyuk, G. and Hakansson, Nils and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krawczynski, H. 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 Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Park, N. and Perkins, J. S. and Pohl, Manuela and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Pueschel, Elisa and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Rajotte, J. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. 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 Varlotta, A. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Zajczyk, A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {Very-high energy observations of the galactic center region by veritas IN 2010-2012}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {790}, 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/790/2/149}, pages = {9}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The Galactic center is an interesting region for high-energy (0.1-100 GeV) and very-high-energy (E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray observations. Potential sources of GeV/TeV gamma-ray emission have been suggested, e.g., the accretion of matter onto the supermassive black hole, cosmic rays from a nearby supernova remnant (e.g., Sgr A East), particle acceleration in a plerion, or the annihilation of dark matter particles. The Galactic center has been detected by EGRET and by Fermi/LAT in the MeV/GeV energy band. At TeV energies, the Galactic center was detected with moderate significance by the CANGAROO and Whipple 10 m telescopes and with high significance by H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS. We present the results from three years of VERITAS observations conducted at large zenith angles resulting in a detection of the Galactic center on the level of 18 standard deviations at energies above similar to 2.5 TeV. The energy spectrum is derived and is found to be compatible with hadronic, leptonic, and hybrid emission models discussed in the literature. Future, more detailed measurements of the high-energy cutoff and better constraints on the high-energy flux variability will help to refine and/or disentangle the individual models.}, language = {en} }