Radio galaxies dominate the high-energy diffuse gamma-ray background
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Center for Particle Astrophysics, Batavia, IL 60510 (United States)
- Ohio State University, Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physcis (CCAPP), Columbus, OH 43210 (United States)
- Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
It has been suggested that unresolved radio galaxies and radio quasars (sometimes referred to as misaligned active galactic nuclei) could be responsible for a significant fraction of the observed diffuse gamma-ray background. In this study, we use the latest data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope to characterize the gamma-ray emission from a sample of 51 radio galaxies. In addition to those sources that had previously been detected using Fermi data, we report here the first statistically significant detection of gamma-ray emission from the radio galaxies 3C 212, 3C 411, and B3 0309+411B. Combining this information with the radio fluxes, radio luminosity function, and redshift distribution of this source class, we find that radio galaxies dominate the diffuse gamma-ray background, generating 77.2{sup +25.4}{sub -9.4}% of this emission at energies above ∼1 GeV . We discuss the implications of this result and point out that it provides support for scenarios in which IceCube's high-energy astrophysical neutrinos also originate from the same population of radio galaxies.
- OSTI ID:
- 22679533
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 08; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Diffuse γ-ray emission from misaligned active galactic nuclei
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