VERITAS OBSERVATIONS OF A VERY HIGH ENERGY γ-RAY FLARE FROM THE BLAZAR 3C 66A

V A Acciari,S Godambe,E Aliu,M Wood,Y Butt,T C Weekes,T Arlen,T Ergin,A Mccann,E Hays,E Roache,J A Toner,K Gibbs,K Byrum,D Hanna,N Karlsson,L Fortson,G Gyuk,P Cogan,M Kertzman,R Dickherber,D A Williams,M Schroedter,J H Buckley,S P Wakely,W Benbow,R G Wagner,J S Perkins,D Horan,D Steele,G Maier,D Pandel,J Millis,R Mukherjee,J Holder,S Wissel,R A Ong,M Beilicke,A Cesarini,V Bugaev,A W Smith,K Ragan,J P Finley,T Nagai,L Ciupik,M J Lang,J E Ward,P Fortin,C M Hui,P Moriarty,F Krennrich,G H Gillanders,H J Rose,A Furniss,M K Daniel,T B Humensky,J Grube,M Mccutcheon,A N Otte,J Kildea,D Gall,J Quinn,S J Fegan,M Theiling,S P Swordy,D Petry,A Konopelko,B Zitzer,H Krawczynski,A Varlotta,S Lebohec,P T Reynolds,M Pohl,A Falcone,S M Bradbury,A Cannon,V V Vassiliev,D Kieda,G H Sembroski,M Böttcher,Filip Pizlo ,Asif Imran ,R Guénette ,Luis Reyes ,Wei Cui ,Philip Kaaret ,Y C K Chow ,Ö Çelik ,A J.r Weinstein

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/693/2/l104

VERITAS OBSERVATIONS OF A VERY HIGH ENERGY γ-RAY FLARE FROM THE BLAZAR 3C 66A

V A Acciari, S Godambe + Show 87 more

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https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/693/2/l104

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#Object 3C 66A #Soft Power Law + Show 8 more

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Abstract

The intermediate-frequency peaked BL Lacertae (IBL) object 3C 66A is detected during 2007 - 2008 in VHE (very high energy: E > 100 GeV) gamma-rays with the VERITAS stereoscopic array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. An excess of 1791 events is detected, corresponding to a significance of 21.2 standard deviations (sigma), in these observations (32.8 hours live time). The observed integral flux above 200 GeV is 6% of the Crab Nebula's flux and shows evidence for variability on the time-scale of days. The measured energy spectrum is characterized by a soft power law with photon index Gamma = 4.1 +- 0.4_stat +- 0.6_sys. The radio galaxy 3C 66B is excluded as a possible source of the VHE emission.

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