@article{AliuArcherAuneetal.2015, author = {Aliu, E. and Archer, A. and Aune, T. and Barnacka, Anna and Behera, B. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Berger, K. and Bird, R. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Byrum, K. and Cardenzana, J. V. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, Xuhui and Ciupik, L. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, Wei and Dickinson, H. J. and Dumm, J. and Eisch, J. D. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Federici, Simone 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 Griffiths, S. T. and Grube, J. and Gyuk, G. and Hakansson, Nils and Hanna, D. and Holder, J. and Hughes, G. and Humensky, T. B. and Johnson, C. A. and Kaaret, P. and Kar, P. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krawczynski, H. and Krennrich, F. and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Madhavan, A. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Meagher, K. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Nieto, Daniel 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 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 Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tucci, J. V. and Tyler, J. and Varlotta, A. and Vassiliev, V. V. and Wakely, S. P. and Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {Veritas observations of the BL LAC OBJECT PG 1553+113}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {799}, 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/799/1/7}, pages = {9}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We present results from VERITAS observations of the BL Lac object PG 1553+113 spanning the years 2010, 2011, and 2012. The time-averaged spectrum, measured between 160 and 560 GeV, is well described by a power law with a spectral index of 4.33 +/- 0.09. The time-averaged integral flux above 200 GeV measured for this period was (1.69 +/- 0.06) x 10(-11) photons cm(-2) s(-1), corresponding to 6.9\% of the Crab Nebula flux. We also present the combined gamma-ray spectrum from the Fermi Large Area Telescope and VERITAS covering an energy range from 100 MeV to 560 GeV. The data are well fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff at 101.9 +/- 3.2 GeV. The origin of the cutoff could be intrinsic to PG 1553+113 or be due to the gamma-ray opacity of our universe through pair production off the extragalactic background light (EBL). Given lower limits to the redshift of z > 0.395 based on optical/UV observations of PG 1553+113, the cutoff would be dominated by EBL absorption. Conversely, the small statistical uncertainties of the VERITAS energy spectrum have allowed us to provide a robust upper limit on the redshift of PG 1553+113 of z <= 0.62. A strongly elevated mean flux of (2.50 +/- 0.14) x10(-11) photons cm(-2) s(-1) (10.3\% of the Crab Nebula flux) was observed during 2012, with the daily flux reaching as high as (4.44 +/- 0.71) x10(-11) photons cm(-2) s(-1) (18.3\% of the Crab Nebula flux) on MJD 56048. The light curve measured during the 2012 observing season is marginally inconsistent with a steady flux, giving a chi(2) probability for a steady flux of 0.03\%.}, language = {en} } @article{AliuArchambaultAuneetal.2014, author = {Aliu, E. and Archambault, S. and Aune, T. and Behera, B. and Beilicke, M. and Benbow, W. and Berger, K. and Bird, R. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Cardenzana, J. V. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, Xuhui and Ciupik, L. and Collins-Hughes, E. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Dumm, J. and Dwarkadas, Vikram V. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Federici, Simone and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Fortin, P. and Fortson, L. and Furniss, A. and Galante, N. and Gall, D. 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 Kaaret, P. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krennrich, F. and Kumar, S. and Lang, M. J. and Madhavan, A. S. and Maier, G. and McCann, A. J. and Meagher, K. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Pandel, D. and Park, N. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. and Quinn, J. and Ragan, K. and Rajotte, J. and Ratliff, G. and Reyes, L. C. and Reynolds, P. T. and Richards, G. T. and Roache, E. and Rousselle, J. and Sembroski, G. H. and Shahinyan, K. and Sheidaei, F. and Smith, A. W. and Staszak, D. and Telezhinsky, Igor O. and Tsurusaki, K. and Tucci, J. V. and Tyler, J. and Varlotta, A. and Vassiliev, V. V. and Vincent, S. and Wakely, S. P. and Ward, J. E. and Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Wilhelm, Alina}, title = {Investigating the TeV morpholoy of MGRO J1908+06 with veritas}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics}, volume = {787}, 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/787/2/166}, pages = {7}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We report on deep observations of the extended TeV gamma-ray source MGRO J1908+06 made with the VERITAS very high energy gamma-ray observatory. Previously, the TeV emission has been attributed to the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) of the Fermi-LAT pulsar PSR J1907+0602. We detect MGRO J1908+06 at a significance level of 14 standard deviations (14 sigma) and measure a photon index of 2.20 +/- 0.10(stat) +/- 0.20(sys). The TeV emission is extended, covering the region near PSR J1907+0602 and also extending toward SNR G40.5-0.5. When fitted with a two-dimensional Gaussian, the intrinsic extension has a standard deviation of sigma(src) = 0 degrees.44 +/- 0 degrees.02. In contrast to other TeV PWNe of similar age in which the TeV spectrum softens with distance from the pulsar, the TeV spectrum measured near the pulsar location is consistent with that measured at a position near the rim of G40.5-0.5, 0 degrees.33 away.}, language = {en} } @article{AliuAuneBeheraetal.2014, author = {Aliu, E. 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 Cerruti, M. and Chen, Xuhui and Ciupik, L. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Dumm, J. and Dwarkadas, Vikram V. and Errando, M. and Falcone, A. and Federici, Simone 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 Gotthelf, E. V. 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 Kargaltsev, O. and Kertzman, M. and Khassen, Y. and Kieda, D. and Krennrich, F. and Lang, M. J. and Madhavan, A. S. and Maier, G. and McArthur, S. and McCann, A. and Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Pandel, D. and Park, N. and Pohl, Martin and Popkow, A. and Prokoph, H. 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 Roberts, 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 Weinstein, A. and Welsing, R. and Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {Spatially resolving the very high energy emission from MRGO J2019+37 wih veritas}, 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 = {1}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {0004-637X}, doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/788/1/78}, pages = {10}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We present very high energy (VHE) imaging of MGRO J2019+37 obtained with the VERITAS observatory. The bright extended (similar to 2 degrees) unidentified Milagro source is located toward the rich star formation region Cygnus-X. MGRO J2019+37 is resolved into two VERITAS sources. The faint, point-like source VER J2016+371 overlaps CTB 87, a filled-center remnant (SNR) with no evidence of a supernova remnant shell at the present time. Its spectrum is well fit in the 0.65-10 TeV energy range by a power-law model with photon index 2.3 +/- 0.4. VER J2019+378 is a bright extended (similar to 1 degrees) source that likely accounts for the bulk of the Milagro emission and is notably coincident with PSR J2021+3651 and the star formation region Sh 2-104. Its spectrum in the range 1-30 TeV is well fit with a power-law model of photon index 1.75 +/- 0.3, among the hardest values measured in the VHE band, comparable to that observed near Vela-X. We explore the unusual spectrum and morphology in the radio and X-ray bands to constrain possible emission mechanisms for this source.}, 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{ArchambaultArcherAuneetal.2016, author = {Archambault, S. and Archer, A. and Aune, T. and Barnacka, Anna and Benbow, W. and Bird, R. and Buchovecky, M. and Buckley, J. H. and Bugaev, V. and Byrum, K. and Cardenzana, J. V. and Cerruti, M. and Chen, Xuhui and Ciupik, L. and Collins-Hughes, E. and Connolly, M. P. and Cui, W. and Dickinson, H. J. and Dumm, J. and Eisch, J. D. and Falcone, A. and Feng, Q. and Finley, J. P. and Fleischhack, H. and Flinders, A. 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 Khassen, Y. 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 Millis, J. and Moriarty, P. and Mukherjee, R. and Nieto, D. and Ong, R. A. and Otte, A. N. and Pandel, D. 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 Rousselle, J. and Rulten, 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 Wilhelm, Alina and Williams, D. A. and Zitzer, B.}, title = {EXCEPTIONALLY BRIGHT TEV FLARES FROM THE BINARY LS I+61 degrees 303}, series = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters}, volume = {817}, journal = {The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters}, publisher = {IOP Publ. Ltd.}, address = {Bristol}, issn = {2041-8205}, doi = {10.3847/2041-8205/817/1/L7}, pages = {6}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The TeV binary system LS I +61 degrees 303 is known for its regular, non-thermal emission pattern that traces the orbital period of the compact object in its 26.5 day orbit around its B0 Ve star companion. The system typically presents elevated TeV emission around apastron passage with flux levels between 5\% and 15\% of the steady flux from the Crab Nebula (> 300 GeV). In this article, VERITAS observations of LS I + 61 degrees. 303 taken in late 2014 are presented, during which bright TeV flares around apastron at flux levels peaking above 30\% of the Crab Nebula flux were detected. This is the brightest such activity from this source ever seen in the TeV regime. The strong outbursts have rise and fall times of less than a day. The short timescale of the flares, in conjunction with the observation of 10 TeV photons from LS I + 61 degrees 303 during the flares, provides constraints on the properties of the accelerator in the source.}, language = {en} }