THE DISCOVERY OF {gamma}-RAY EMISSION FROM THE BLAZAR RGB J0710+591
- Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Amado, AZ 85645 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Barnard College, Columbia University, NY 10027 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
- Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
- Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2T8 (Canada)
- Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Astrophysical Institute, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716 (United States)
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT (United Kingdom)
- Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 60439 (United States)
- School of Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland (Ireland)
- School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway, Republic of Ireland (Ireland)
- Astronomy Department, Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago, IL 60605 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA 50112-1690 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Lab, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
The high-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae object RGB J0710+591 was observed in the very high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) wave band by the VERITAS array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The observations, taken between 2008 December and 2009 March and totaling 22.1 hr, yield the discovery of VHE gamma rays from the source. RGB J0710+591 is detected at a statistical significance of 5.5 standard deviations (5.5{sigma}) above the background, corresponding to an integral flux of (3.9 {+-} 0.8) x 10{sup -12} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} (3% of the Crab Nebula's flux) above 300 GeV. The observed spectrum can be fit by a power law from 0.31 to 4.6 TeV with a photon spectral index of 2.69 {+-} 0.26{sub stat} {+-} 0.20{sub sys}. These data are complemented by contemporaneous multiwavelength data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, the Swift X-ray Telescope, the Swift Ultra-Violet and Optical Telescope, and the Michigan-Dartmouth-MIT observatory. Modeling the broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) with an equilibrium synchrotron self-Compton model yields a good statistical fit to the data. The addition of an external-Compton component to the model does not improve the fit nor brings the system closer to equipartition. The combined Fermi and VERITAS data constrain the properties of the high-energy emission component of the source over 4 orders of magnitude and give measurements of the rising and falling sections of the SED.
- OSTI ID:
- 21448729
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 715, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/715/1/L49; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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