TY - JOUR A1 - Archambault, S. A1 - Archer, A. A1 - Benbow, W. A1 - Bird, R. A1 - Biteau, Jonathan A1 - Buchovecky, M. A1 - Buckley, J. H. A1 - Bugaev, V. A1 - Byrum, K. A1 - Cerruti, M. A1 - Chen, Xuhui A1 - Ciupik, L. A1 - Connolly, M. P. A1 - Cui, W. A1 - Eisch, J. D. A1 - Errando, M. A1 - Falcone, A. A1 - Feng, Q. A1 - Finley, J. P. A1 - Fleischhack, H. A1 - Fortin, P. A1 - Fortson, L. A1 - Furniss, A. A1 - Gillanders, G. H. A1 - Griffin, S. A1 - Grube, J. A1 - Gyuk, G. A1 - Huetten, M. A1 - Hakansson, Nils A1 - Hanna, D. A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Humensky, T. B. A1 - Johnson, C. A. A1 - Kaaret, P. A1 - Kar, P. A1 - Kelley-Hoskins, N. A1 - Kertzman, M. A1 - Kieda, D. A1 - Krause, M. A1 - Krennrich, F. A1 - Kumar, S. A1 - Lang, M. J. A1 - Maier, G. A1 - McArthur, S. A1 - McCann, A. A1 - Meagher, K. A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, R. A1 - Nguyen, T. A1 - Nieto, D. A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Otte, A. N. A1 - Park, N. A1 - Perkins, J. S. A1 - Pichel, A. A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Popkow, A. A1 - Pueschel, Elisa A1 - Quinn, J. A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Richards, G. T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Rovero, A. C. A1 - Santander, M. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Shahinyan, K. A1 - Smith, A. W. A1 - Staszak, D. A1 - Telezhinsky, Igor O. A1 - Tucci, J. V. A1 - Tyler, J. A1 - Vincent, S. A1 - Wakely, S. P. A1 - Weiner, O. M. A1 - Weinstein, A. A1 - Williams, D. A. A1 - Zitzer, B. A1 - Fumagalli, M. A1 - Prochaska, J. X. T1 - UPPER LIMITS FROM FIVE YEARS OF BLAZAR OBSERVATIONS WITH THE VERITAS CHERENKOV TELESCOPES JF - The astronomical journal N2 - 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. KW - BL Lacertae objects: general KW - galaxies: active KW - gamma rays: galaxies KW - radiation mechanisms: non-thermal Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-6256/151/6/142 SN - 0004-6256 SN - 1538-3881 VL - 151 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Archambault, S. A1 - Arlen, T. A1 - Aune, T. A1 - Beilicke, M. A1 - Benbow, W. A1 - Bird, R. A1 - Boettcher, Markus A1 - Bouvier, A. A1 - Buckley, J. H. A1 - Bugaev, V. A1 - Ciupik, L. A1 - Collins-Hughes, E. A1 - Connolly, M. P. A1 - Cui, W. A1 - Dickherber, R. A1 - Dumm, J. A1 - Errando, M. A1 - Falcone, A. A1 - Federici, Simone A1 - Feng, Q. A1 - Finley, J. P. A1 - Fortson, L. A1 - Furniss, A. A1 - Galante, N. A1 - Gall, D. A1 - Garson, A. III. A1 - Gillanders, G. H. A1 - Griffin, S. A1 - Grube, J. A1 - Gusbar, C. A1 - Gyuk, G. A1 - Hanna, D. A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Hughes, G. A1 - Kaaret, P. A1 - Kertzman, M. A1 - Khassen, Y. A1 - Kieda, D. A1 - Krawczynski, H. A1 - Lamerato, A. A1 - Lang, M. J. A1 - Li, K. A1 - Madhavan, A. S. A1 - Maier, G. A1 - Majumdar, P. A1 - McArthur, S. A1 - McCann, A. A1 - Millis, J. A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, R. A1 - Nieto, D. A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Orr, M. A1 - Otte, A. N. A1 - Park, N. A1 - Perkins, J. S. A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Popkow, A. A1 - Prokoph, H. A1 - Quinn, J. A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Richards, G. T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Roustazadeh, P. A1 - Saxon, D. B. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Senturk, G. D. A1 - Skole, C. A1 - Staszak, D. A1 - Telezhinsky, Igor O. A1 - Tesic, G. A1 - Theiling, M. A1 - Varlotta, A. A1 - Vassiliev, V. V. A1 - Vincent, S. A1 - Wakely, S. P. A1 - Weinstein, A. A1 - Welsing, R. A1 - Williams, D. A. A1 - Zitzer, B. T1 - Test of models of the cosmic infrared background with multiwavelength observations of the blazar 1ES 1218+30.4 IN 2009 JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - 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. KW - BL Lacertae objects: general KW - BL Lacertae objects: individual (1ES1218+30.4) KW - cosmic background radiation KW - diffuse radiation KW - galaxies: jets KW - gamma rays: galaxies Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/788/2/158 SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 788 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Abeysekara, A. U. A1 - Archer, A. A1 - Benbow, Wystan A1 - Bird, Ralph A1 - Brill, A. A1 - Brose, Robert A1 - Buckley, J. H. A1 - Christiansen, Jessie L. A1 - Chromey, A. J. A1 - Daniel, M. K. A1 - Falcone, A. A1 - Feng, Qi A1 - Finley, John P. A1 - Fortson, L. A1 - Furniss, Amy A1 - Gillanders, Gerard H. A1 - Gueta, O. A1 - Hanna, David A1 - Hervet, O. A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Hughes, G. A1 - Humensky, T. B. A1 - Johnson, Caitlin A. A1 - Kaaret, Philip A1 - Kar, P. A1 - Kelley-Hoskins, N. A1 - Kertzman, M. A1 - Kieda, David A1 - Krause, Maria A1 - Krennrich, F. A1 - Lang, M. J. A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, Reshmi A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Otte, A. N. A1 - Park, N. A1 - Petrashyk, A. A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Pueschel, Elisa A1 - Quinn, J. A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Richards, Gregory T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Rulten, C. A1 - Sadeh, I. A1 - Santander, Marcos A1 - Scott, S. S. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Shahinyan, Karlen A1 - Tyler, J. A1 - Wakely, S. P. A1 - Weinstein, A. A1 - Wells, R. M. A1 - Wilcox, P. A1 - Wilhelm, Alina A1 - Williams, D. A. A1 - Williamson, T. J. A1 - Zitzer, B. A1 - Kaur, A. T1 - VERITAS Observations of the BL Lac Object TXS 0506+056 JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics ; Part 2, Letters N2 - On 2017 September 22, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory reported the detection of the high-energy neutrino event IC 170922A, of potential astrophysical origin. It was soon determined that the neutrino direction was consistent with the location of the gamma-ray blazar TXS 0506+056. (3FGL J0509.4+ 0541), which was in an elevated gamma-ray emission state as measured by the Fermi satellite. Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) observations of the neutrino/blazar region started on 2017 September 23 in response to the neutrino alert and continued through 2018 February 6. While no significant very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) emission was observed from the blazar by VERITAS in the two-week period immediately following the IceCube alert, TXS 0506+ 056 was detected by VERITAS with a significance of 5.8 standard deviations (sigma) in the full 35 hr data set. The average photon flux of the source during this period was (8.9 +/- 1.6). x. 10(-12) cm(-2) s(-1), or 1.6% of the Crab Nebula flux, above an energy threshold of 110 GeV, with a soft spectral index of 4.8. +/-. 1.3. KW - astroparticle physics KW - BL Lacertae objects: individual (TXS 0506+056, VER J0509+057) KW - gamma rays: galaxies KW - quasars: general KW - neutrinos Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aad053 SN - 2041-8205 SN - 2041-8213 VL - 861 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aliu, E. A1 - Archambault, S. A1 - Arlen, T. A1 - Aune, T. A1 - Beilicke, M. A1 - Benbow, W. A1 - Boettcher, Markus A1 - Bouvier, A. A1 - Bugaev, V. A1 - Cannon, A. A1 - Cesarini, A. A1 - Ciupik, L. A1 - Collins-Hughes, E. A1 - Connolly, M. P. A1 - Cui, W. A1 - Dickherber, R. A1 - Dumm, J. A1 - Errando, M. A1 - Falcone, A. A1 - Federici, Stefania A1 - Feng, Q. A1 - Finley, J. P. A1 - Finnegan, G. A1 - Fortson, L. A1 - Furniss, A. A1 - Galante, N. A1 - Gall, D. A1 - Godambe, S. A1 - Griffin, S. A1 - Grube, J. A1 - Gyuk, G. A1 - Hanna, D. A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Huan, H. A1 - Hughes, G. A1 - Hui, C. M. A1 - Imran, A. A1 - Jameil, O. A1 - Kaaret, P. A1 - Karlsson, N. A1 - Kertzman, M. A1 - Kerr, J. A1 - Khassen, Y. A1 - Kieda, D. A1 - Krawczynski, H. A1 - Krennrich, F. A1 - Lang, M. J. A1 - Lee, K. A1 - Madhavan, A. S. A1 - Majumdar, P. A1 - McArthur, S. A1 - McCann, A. A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, R. A1 - Nelson, T. A1 - de Bhroithe, A. O'Faolain A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Orr, M. A1 - Otte, A. N. A1 - Park, N. A1 - Perkins, J. S. A1 - Pichel, A. A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Quinn, J. A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Ruppel, J. A1 - Saxon, D. B. A1 - Schroedter, M. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Sentuerk, G. D. A1 - Smith, A. W. A1 - Staszak, D. A1 - Stroh, M. A1 - Telezhinsky, Igor O. A1 - Tesic, G. A1 - Theiling, M. A1 - Thibadeau, S. A1 - Tsurusaki, K. A1 - Varlotta, A. A1 - Vassiliev, V. V. A1 - Vivier, M. A1 - Wakely, S. P. A1 - Ward, J. E. A1 - Weinstein, A. A1 - Welsing, R. A1 - Williams, D. A. A1 - Zitzer, B. T1 - Multiwavelength observations of the AGN 1ES 0414+009 with veritas, FERMI-LAT, SWIFT-XRT, AND MDM JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - We present observations of the BL Lac object 1ES 0414+009 in the >200 GeV gamma-ray band by the VERITAS array of Cherenkov telescopes. 1ES 0414+009 was observed by VERITAS between 2008 January and 2011 February, resulting in 56.2 hr of good quality pointed observations. These observations resulted in a detection of 822 events from the source corresponding to a statistical significance of 6.4 standard deviations (6.4 sigma) above the background. The source flux, showing no evidence for variability, is measured as (5.2 +/- 1.1(stat) +/- 2.6(sys)) x 10(-12) photons cm(-2) s(-1) above 200 GeV, equivalent to approximately 2% of the Crab Nebula flux above this energy. The differential photon spectrum from 230 GeV to 850 GeV is well fit by a power law with a photon index of Gamma = 3.4 +/- 0.5(stat) +/- 0.3(sys) and a flux normalization of (1.6 +/- 0.3(stat) +/- 0.8(sys)) x 10(-11) photons cm(-2) s(-1) at 300 GeV. We also present multiwavelength results taken in the optical (MDM), x-ray (Swift-XRT), and GeV (Fermi-LAT) bands and use these results to construct a broadband spectral energy distribution (SED). Modeling of this SED indicates that homogenous one-zone leptonic scenarios are not adequate to describe emission from the system, with a lepto-hadronic model providing a better fit to the data. KW - BL Lacertae objects: individual (1ES 0414+009, ERJ0416+011) KW - gamma rays: galaxies Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/755/2/118 SN - 0004-637X VL - 755 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Aliu, E. A1 - Archambault, S. A1 - Arlen, T. A1 - Aune, T. A1 - Beilicke, M. A1 - Benbow, W. A1 - Boettcher, Markus A1 - Bouvier, A. A1 - Buckley, J. H. A1 - Bugaev, V. A1 - Cesarini, A. A1 - Ciupik, L. A1 - Collins-Hughes, E. A1 - Connolly, M. P. A1 - Cui, W. A1 - Dickherber, R. A1 - Duke, C. A1 - Dumm, J. A1 - Errando, M. A1 - Falcone, A. A1 - Federici, Simone A1 - Feng, Q. A1 - Finley, J. P. A1 - Finnegan, G. A1 - Fortson, L. A1 - Furniss, A. A1 - Galante, N. A1 - Gall, D. A1 - Godambe, S. A1 - Griffin, S. A1 - Grube, J. A1 - Gyuk, G. A1 - Hanna, D. A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Huan, H. A1 - Kaaret, P. A1 - Karlsson, N. A1 - Khassen, Y. A1 - Kieda, D. A1 - Krawczynski, H. A1 - Krennrich, F. A1 - Lee, K. A1 - Madhavan, A. S. A1 - Maier, G. A1 - Majumdar, P. A1 - McArthur, S. A1 - McCann, A. A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, R. A1 - Nelson, T. A1 - de Bhroithe, A. O'Faolain A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Orr, M. A1 - Otte, A. N. A1 - Park, N. A1 - Perkins, J. S. A1 - Pichel, A. A1 - Pohl, Martin A1 - Prokoph, H. A1 - Quinn, J. A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Reyes, L. C. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Saxon, D. B. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Staszak, D. A1 - Telezhinsky, Igor O. A1 - Tesic, G. A1 - Theiling, M. A1 - Thibadeau, S. A1 - Tsurusaki, K. A1 - Varlotta, A. A1 - Vassiliev, V. V. A1 - Vincent, S. A1 - Vivier, M. A1 - Wakely, S. P. A1 - Weekes, T. C. A1 - Weinstein, A. A1 - Welsing, R. A1 - Williams, D. A. A1 - Zitzer, B. A1 - Fortin, P. A1 - Horan, D. A1 - Fumagalli, M. A1 - Kaplan, K. A1 - Prochaska, J. X. T1 - Veritas observations of six bright, hard-spectrum fermi-lat blazars JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - We report on VERITAS very high energy (VHE; E >= 100 GeV) observations of six blazars selected from the Fermi Large Area Telescope First Source Catalog (1FGL). The gamma-ray emission from 1FGL sources was extrapolated up to the VHE band, taking gamma-ray absorption by the extragalactic background light into account. This allowed the selection of six bright, hard-spectrum blazars that were good candidate TeV emitters. Spectroscopic redshift measurements were attempted with the Keck Telescope for the targets without Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectroscopic data. No VHE emission is detected during the observations of the six sources described here. Corresponding TeV upper limits are presented, along with contemporaneous Fermi observations and non-concurrent Swift UVOT and X-Ray Telescope data. The blazar broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) are assembled and modeled with a single-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. The SED built for each of the six blazars shows a synchrotron peak bordering between the intermediate-and high-spectrum-peak classifications, with four of the six resulting in particle-dominated emission regions. KW - BL Lacertae objects: general KW - gamma rays: galaxies Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/759/2/102 SN - 0004-637X VL - 759 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Archer, A. A1 - Barnacka, Anna A1 - Beilicke, M. A1 - Benbow, W. A1 - Berger, K. A1 - Bird, R. A1 - Biteau, Jonathan A1 - Buckley, J. H. A1 - Bugaev, V. A1 - Byrum, K. A1 - Cardenzana, J. V. A1 - Cerruti, M. A1 - Chen, W. A1 - Chen, Xiaoming A1 - Ciupik, L. A1 - Connolly, M. P. A1 - Cui, W. A1 - Dickinson, H. J. A1 - Dumm, J. A1 - Eisch, J. D. A1 - Falcone, A. A1 - Federici, Simone A1 - Feng, Q. A1 - Finley, J. P. A1 - Fleischhack, H. A1 - Fortson, L. A1 - Furniss, A. A1 - Galante, N. A1 - Griffin, S. A1 - Griffiths, S. T. A1 - Grube, J. A1 - Gyuk, G. A1 - Hakansson, Nils A1 - Hanna, D. A1 - Holder, J. A1 - Hughes, G. A1 - Johnson, C. A. A1 - Kaaret, P. A1 - Kar, P. A1 - Kertzman, M. A1 - Khassen, Y. A1 - Kieda, D. A1 - Krawczynski, H. A1 - Kumar, S. A1 - Lang, M. J. A1 - Maier, G. A1 - McArthur, S. A1 - McCann, A. A1 - Meagher, K. A1 - Moriarty, P. A1 - Mukherjee, R. A1 - Nieto, D. A1 - Ong, R. A. A1 - Otte, A. N. A1 - Park, N. A1 - Perkins, J. S. A1 - Pohl, Manuela A1 - Popkow, A. A1 - Prokoph, H. A1 - Pueschel, Elisa A1 - Quinn, J. A1 - Ragan, K. A1 - Rajotte, J. A1 - Reyes, L. C. A1 - Reynolds, P. T. A1 - Richards, G. T. A1 - Roache, E. A1 - Sembroski, G. H. A1 - Shahinyan, K. A1 - Smith, A. W. A1 - Staszak, D. A1 - Telezhinsky, Igor O. A1 - Tucci, J. V. A1 - Tyler, J. A1 - Varlotta, A. A1 - Vincent, S. A1 - Wakely, S. P. A1 - Weinstein, A. A1 - Welsing, R. A1 - Wilhelm, Alina A1 - Williams, D. A. A1 - Zajczyk, A. A1 - Zitzer, B. T1 - Very-high energy observations of the galactic center region by veritas IN 2010-2012 JF - The astrophysical journal : an international review of spectroscopy and astronomical physics N2 - 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. KW - astroparticle physics KW - black hole physics KW - Galaxy: center KW - gamma rays: galaxies KW - methods: data analysis KW - radiation mechanisms: non-thermal Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/790/2/149 SN - 0004-637X SN - 1538-4357 VL - 790 IS - 2 PB - IOP Publ. Ltd. CY - Bristol ER -