Measurement of the Extragalactic Background Light Spectral Energy Distribution with VERITAS

Abeysekara, A. U.; Archer, A.; Benbow, W.; Bird, R.; Brill, A.; Brose, Robert; Buchovecky, M.; Calderon-Madera, D.; Christiansen, J. L.; Cui, Wei; Daniel, M. K.; Falcone, A.; Feng, Q.; Fernández‐Alonso, Mercedes; Finley, J. P.; Fortson, L.; Furniss, A.; Gent, A.; Giuri, C.; Gueta, O.; Hanna, D.; Hassan, Tarek; Hervet, O.; Holder, J.; Hughes, G.; Humensky, T. B.; Johnson, C. A.; Kaaret, Philip; Kertzman, M.; Kieda, D.; Krause, M.; Krennrich, F.; Kumar, S.; Lang, M. J.; Maier, G.; Moriarty, P.; Mukherjee, R.; Rosillo, M. Nievas; O’Brien, Stephan; Ong, R. A.; Pfrang, K.; Pohl, M.; Prado, R. R.; Pueschel, E.; Quinn, J.; Ragan, K.; Reynolds, P. T.; Ribeiro, D.; Richards, G.; Roache, E.; Rovero, A. C.; Sadeh, I.; Santander, M.; Sembroski, G. H.; Shahinyan, K.; Sushch, I.; Svraka, Tibor; Weinstein, A.; Wells, R. M.; Wilcox, P.; Wilhelm, A.; Williams, D. A.; Williamson, T. J.; Zitzer, B.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab4817

Cited by 35 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…While the specific intensity of the EBL remains uncertain due to the difficulties of foreground subtraction in direct observations, current-generation γ-ray observatories (in particular imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, IACTs: H.E.S.S. [12], MAGIC [13], VERITAS [14]) show agreement with expectations from galaxy counts at the ∼ 30 % level for EBL wavelengths up to a few tens of µm [15][16][17][18][19]. On the other hand, the redshift evolution of the EBL, partly probed by observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT, [20]) up to hundreds of GeV [21,22], remains poorly constrained by ground-based observatories due to the limited number of γ-ray sources detected beyond z ∼ 0.5.…”

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confidence: 74%

Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for probing cosmology and fundamental physics with gamma-ray propagation

Martínez¹,

Larriva²,

Barrio³

et al. 2021

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the new-generation ground-based observatory for γ astronomy, provides unique capabilities to address significant open questions in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. We study some of the salient areas of γ cosmology that can be explored as part of the Key Science Projects of CTA, through simulated observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and of their relativistic jets. Observations of AGN with CTA will enable a measurement of γ absorption on the extragalactic background light with a statistical uncertainty below 15% up to a redshift z=2 and to constrain or detect γ halos up to intergalactic-magnetic-field strengths of at least 0.3 pG . Extragalactic observations with CTA also show promising potential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. The best limits on Lorentz invariance violation from γ astronomy will be improved by a factor of at least two to three. CTA will also probe the parameter space in which axion-like particles could constitute a significant fraction, if not all, of dark matter. We conclude on the synergies between CTA and other upcoming facilities that will foster the growth of γ cosmology.

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confidence: 74%

Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for probing cosmology and fundamental physics with gamma-ray propagation

Martínez¹,

Larriva²,

Barrio³

et al. 2021

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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“…6). Current attempts, within the VHE community, are now ongoing to not only constrain the EBL normalisation, but also the shape of the EBL COB SED (see for example Abeysekara et al 2019). Recently, the VERITAS team (Biteau & Williams 2015) demonstrated this by detecting and measuring the spectra of 14 blazars at very high energy (> 100 Gev) in order to enable a full reconstruction of the SED of the EBL.…”

Section: Comparison To Very High Energy (Vhe) Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

GAMA/DEVILS: constraining the cosmic star formation history from improved measurements of the 0.3–2.2 μm extragalactic background light

Koushan

Driver

Bellstedt

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We present a revised measurement of the optical extragalactic background light (EBL), based on the contribution of resolved galaxies to the integrated galaxy light (IGL). The cosmic optical background radiation (COB), encodes the light generated by star-formation, and provides a wealth of information about the cosmic star formation history (CSFH). We combine wide and deep galaxy number counts from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey (GAMA) and Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS), along with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive and other deep survey datasets, in 9 multi-wavelength filters to measure the COB in the range from 0.35 μm to 2.2 μm. We derive the luminosity density in each band independently and show good agreement with recent and complementary estimates of the optical-EBL from very high-energy (VHE) experiments. Our error analysis suggests that the IGL and γ-ray measurements are now fully consistent to within $\sim 10{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, suggesting little need for any additional source of diffuse light beyond the known galaxy population. We use our revised IGL measurements to constrain the cosmic star-formation history, and place amplitude constraints on a number of recent estimates. As a consistency check, we can now demonstrate convincingly, that the CSFH, stellar mass growth, and the optical-EBL provide a fully consistent picture of galaxy evolution. We conclude that the peak of star-formation rate lies in the range 0.066–0.076 M⊙ yr−1 Mpc−3 at a lookback time of 9.1 to 10.9 Gyrs.

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“…The ongoing sampling continues to improve these efforts, and the various long-term MWL light curves will enable flux and spectral correlation studies that may indicate commonalities in the origin of each AGN's emission. The large ensemble of precision VHE AGN spectra will also improve and has already proved useful for generating a variety of cosmological measurements such as constraints on the the density of the EBL [6] and the strength of the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) [10].…”

Section: Pos(icrc2021)794mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generally, the VHE AGN catalog is peaked at nearby redshifts (e.g., ∼55% have < 0.2) but ∼10% of the VHE objects have > 0.5 (primarily FSRQs). Aside from energetics considerations, the major contributor to this redshift distribution is attenuation of VHE photons in a distance-and energy-dependent manner by the extragalactic background light (EBL) [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Results from VERITAS AGN Observations

Benbow¹

2021

Proceedings of 37th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2021)

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VERITAS is one of the world's most sensitive detectors of astrophysical very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) gamma rays. This observatory has operated for ∼14 years, and nearly 7,000 hours of its observations have been targeted on active galactic nuclei (AGN). Approximately 300 AGN were observed with VERITAS, and 40 are detected. These studies are generally accompanied by contemporaneous, broadband observations, which enable detailed probes of the underlying jet-powered processes. Recent scientific results from VERITAS AGN observations are presented.

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Measurement of the Extragalactic Background Light Spectral Energy Distribution with VERITAS

Cited by 35 publications

References 42 publications

Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for probing cosmology and fundamental physics with gamma-ray propagation

Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array for probing cosmology and fundamental physics with gamma-ray propagation

GAMA/DEVILS: constraining the cosmic star formation history from improved measurements of the 0.3–2.2 μm extragalactic background light

Recent Results from VERITAS AGN Observations

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