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Title: MAGIC long-term study of the distant TeV blazar PKS 1424+240 in a multiwavelength context

Journal Article · · Astronomy and Astrophysics
 [1]
  1. Inst. for High Energy Physics (IFAE), Bellaterra (Spain)

Aims. We present a study of the very high energy (VHE; E>100 GeV) γ-ray emission of the blazar PKS 1424+240 observed with the MAGIC telescopes. The primary aim of this paper is the multiwavelength spectral characterization and modeling of this blazar, which is made particularly interesting by the recent discovery of a lower limit of its redshift of z ≥ 0.6 and makes it a promising candidate to be the most distant VHE source. Methods. The source has been observed with the MAGIC telescopes in VHE rays for a total observation time of ~33.6 h from 2009 to 2011. A detailed analysis of its γ-ray spectrum and time evolution has been carried out. Moreover, we have collected and analyzed simultaneous and quasi-simultaneous multiwavelength data. Results. The source was marginally detected in VHE rays during 2009 and 2010, and later, the detection was confirmed during an optical outburst in 2011. The combined significance of the stacked sample is ~7.2σ. The differential spectra measured during the different campaigns can be described by steep power laws with the indices ranging from 3.5 ± 1.2 to 5.0 ± 1.7. The MAGIC spectra corrected for the absorption due to the extragalactic background light connect smoothly, within systematic errors, with the mean spectrum in 2009-2011 observed at lower energies by the Fermi-LAT. The absorption-corrected MAGIC spectrum is flat with no apparent turn down up to 400 GeV. The multiwavelength light curve shows increasing flux in radio and optical bands that could point to a common origin from the same region of the jet. The large separation between the two peaks of the constructed non-simultaneous spectral energy distribution also requires an extremely high Doppler factor if an one zone synchrotron self-Compton model is applied. We find that a two-component synchrotron self-Compton model describes the spectral energy distribution of the source well, if the source is located at z ~ 0.6.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Contributing Organization:
the MAGIC collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1356461
Journal Information:
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 567; ISSN 0004-6361
Publisher:
EDP SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 40 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (12)

The BL-Lacertae gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240 associated with a group of galaxies at z = 0.6010 journal April 2016
Empirical multi-wavelength prediction method for very high energy gamma-ray emitting BL Lacertae objects journal December 2017
Luminous and high-frequency peaked blazars: the origin of the γ -ray emission from PKS 1424+240 journal October 2017
Multi-wavelength characterization of the blazar S5 0716+714 during an unprecedented outburst phase journal November 2018
Long-term optical monitoring of TeV emitting blazars: I. Data analysis⋆ journal December 2018
Multiwavelength photometric and spectropolarimetric analysis of the FSRQ 3C 279 journal June 2018
Hadronuclear interpretation of a high-energy neutrino event coincident with a blazar flare text January 2019
Multi-wavelength characterization of the blazar S5 0716+714 during an unprecedented outburst phase text January 2018
Luminous and high-frequency peaked blazars: the origin of the $\gamma$-ray emission from PKS 1424+240 text January 2017
The extragalactic background light, the Hubble constant, and anomalies: conclusions from 20 years of TeV gamma-ray observations text January 2015
The BL-Lac gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240 associated with a group of galaxies at z=0.6010 text January 2016
Multiwavelength Photometric and Spectropolarimetric Analysis of the FSRQ 3C 279 text January 2018

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