Distant Blazars Research Articles

On the Neutrino Flares from the Direction of TXS 0506+056

Abstract A multimessenger campaign has associated a high-energy cosmic neutrino with a distant gamma-ray blazar, TXS 0506+056. IceCube archival data subsequently revealed that the high-energy neutrino flux from the direction of this source, integrated over the last 10 yr, is dominated by a single bright neutrino flare in 2014, leaving the multimessenger flare as a subluminous second flare. The extraordinary brightness of the blazar despite its distance suggests that it may belong to a special class of sources that produce cosmic rays. We show that the diffuse IceCube flux discovered in 2013 can be accommodated by a subclass of blazars, on the order of 5%, that episodically produce neutrinos with the luminosity of the 2014 neutrino flare. Matching the cosmic-ray flux required to produce the neutrinos to the one observed implies highly efficient neutrino sources with large target photon densities that are not transparent to high-energy gamma-rays. The opacity of the source modifies the straightforward multimessenger connection in a way that is consistent with the gamma-ray observations coincident with the 2014 neutrino flare.

Gamma rays reveal the Universe's history

Cosmology How many stars have formed in the Universe, and when did they do so? These fundamental questions are difficult to answer because there are systematic uncertainties in converting the light we observe into the total mass of stars in galaxies. The Fermi-LAT Collaboration addressed these questions by exploiting the way that gamma rays from distant blazars propagate through intergalactic space, which depends on the total amount of light emitted by all galaxies. The collaboration found that star formation peaked about 3 billion years after the Big Bang (see the Perspective by Prandini). Although this is similar to previous estimates from optical and infrared observations, the results provide valuable confirmation because they should be affected by different systematic effects. Science , this issue p. [1031][1]; see also p. [995][2] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aat8123 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aav7344

Fermi-LAT Detection of a Transient γ-Ray Source in the Direction of a Distant Blazar B3 1428+422 at z = 4.72

Abstract We report the detection of a transient γ-ray source in the direction of B3 1428+422 (z = 4.72) by analyzing the 110-month Fermi-LAT Pass 8 data. The new transient γ-ray source is far away from the Galactic plane and has a rather soft spectrum, in agreement with being a high redshift blazar. We suggest that the newly discovered transient is the γ-ray counterpart of B3 1428+422, which could be the most distant GeV source detected so far. The detection of a group of such distant γ-ray blazars will be helpful in reconstructing the evolution of the luminosity function and studying the extragalactic background light at such high redshifts.

Axion-Driven Cosmic Magnetogenesis during the QCD Crossover.

We propose a mechanism for the generation of a magnetic field in the early Universe during the QCD crossover assuming that dark matter is made of axions. Thermoelectric fields arise at pressure gradients in the primordial plasma due to the difference in charge, energy density, and equation of state between the quark and lepton components. The axion field is coupled to the EM field, so when its spatial gradient is misaligned with the thermoelectric field, an electric current is driven. Because of the finite resistivity of the plasma, an electric field appears that is generally rotational. For a QCD axion mass consistent with observational constraints and a conventional efficiency for turbulent dynamo amplification-driven by the same pressure gradients responsible for the thermoelectric fields-a magnetic field is generated on subhorizon scales. After significant Alfvénic unwinding, it reaches a present-day strength of B∼10^{-13} G on a characteristic scale L_{B}∼20 pc. The resulting combination of BL_{B}^{1/2} is significantly stronger than in any astrophysical scenario, providing a clear test for the cosmological origin of the field through γ-ray observations of distant blazars. The amplitude of the pressure gradients may be inferred from the detection of concomitant gravitational waves, while several experiments are underway to confirm or rule out the existence of axions.

Resolving the host galaxy of a distant blazar with LBT/LUCI 1 + ARGOS

BL Lac objects emitting in the Very High Energy (VHE) regime are unique tools to peer into the properties of the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL). However, due to the typical absence of features in their spectra, the determination of their redshifts has proven challenging. In this work we exploit the superb spatial resolution delivered by the new Advanced Rayleigh guided Ground layer adaptive Optics System (ARGOS) at the Large Binocular Telescope to detect the host galaxy of HESS J1943+213, a VHE emitting BL Lac shining through the Galaxy. Deep H-band imaging collected during the ARGOS commissioning allowed us to separate the contribution of the nuclear emission and to unveil the properties of the host galaxy with unprecedented detail. The host galaxy is well fitted by a S\'ersic profile with index of n~2 and total magnitude of H~16.15 mag. Under the assumption that BL Lac host galaxies are standard candles, we infer a redshift of z~0.21. In the framework of the current model for the EBL, this value is in agreement with the observed dimming of the VHE spectrum due to the scatter of energetic photons on the EBL.

Simulations of extragalactic magnetic fields and of their observables

The origin of extragalactic magnetic fields is still poorly understood. Based on a dedicated suite of cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulations with the ENZO code we have performed a survey of different models that may have caused present-day magnetic fields in galaxies and galaxy clusters. The outcomes of these models differ in cluster outskirts, filaments, sheets and voids and we use these simulations to find observational signatures of magnetogenesis. With these simulations, we predict the signal of extragalactic magnetic fields in radio observations of synchrotron emission from the cosmic web, in Faraday rotation, in the propagation of ultra high energy cosmic rays, in the polarized signal from fast radio bursts at cosmological distance and in spectra of distant blazars. In general, primordial scenarios in which present-day magnetic fields originate from the amplification of weak (⩽) uniform seed fields result in more homogeneous and relatively easier to observe magnetic fields than astrophysical scenarios, in which present-day fields are the product of feedback processes triggered by stars and active galaxies. In the near future the best evidence for the origin of cosmic magnetic fields will most likely come from a combination of synchrotron emission and Faraday rotation observed at the periphery of large-scale structures.

Effects of spatial fluctuations in the extragalactic background light on hard gamma-ray spectra

This study investigates the impact of the fluctuations in the extra galactic background light (EBL) on the attenuation of the hard $\gamma$-ray spectra of distant blazars. EBL fluctuations occur on the scales up to 100 Mpc and are caused by clustering of galaxies. The EBL photons interact with high energy $\gamma$-rays via the electron-positron pair production mechanism: $\gamma + \gamma' \rightarrow e^+ + e^-$. The attenuation of $\gamma$-rays depends on their energy and the density of the intervening EBL photon field. Using a simple model for the evolution of the mean EBL photon density, we implement an analytical description of the EBL fluctuations. We find that the amplitudes of the EBL energy density can vary by $\pm 1\%$ as a function of environment. The EBL fluctuations lead to mild alterations of the optical depth or equivalently the transmissivity for $\gamma$-rays from distant blazars. Our model predicts maximum changes of $\pm 10\%$ in the $\gamma$-ray transmissivity. However, this translates into marginal differences in the power law slopes of currently observed $\gamma$-ray spectra. The slopes of deabsorbed $\gamma$-ray spectra differ by not more than $\pm 1\%$ if EBL fluctuations are included.

EBL Inhomogeneity and Hard-Spectrum Gamma-Ray Sources

Abstract The unexpectedly hard very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) γ-ray spectra of a few distant blazars have been interpreted as evidence of a reduction of the γγ opacity of the universe due to the interaction of VHE γ-rays with the extragalactic background light (EBL) compared to the expectation from current knowledge of the density and cosmological evolution of the EBL. One of the suggested solutions to this problem involves the inhomogeneity of the EBL. In this paper, we study the effects of such inhomogeneity on the energy density of the EBL (which then also becomes anisotropic) and the resulting γγ opacity. Specifically, we investigate the effects of cosmic voids along the line of sight to a distant blazar. We find that the effect of such voids on the γγ opacity, for any realistic void size, is only of the order of ≲1% and much smaller than expected from a simple linear scaling of the γγ opacity with the line-of-sight galaxy underdensity due to a cosmic void.

The BL-Lacertae gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240 associated with a group of galaxies atz= 0.6010

PKS 1424+240 is a BL-Lac blazar with unknown redshift that was detected at high-energy gamma rays by Fermi-LAT with a hard spectrum. At VHE, it was first detected by VERITAS and later confirmed by MAGIC. Its spectral energy distribution is highly attenuated at VHE gamma rays, which is coherent with distant sources. Several estimations enabled the redshift to be constrained to the range 0.6 < z < 1.3. These results place PKS 1424+240 in the very interesting condition of being probably the most distant blazar that has been detected at VHE. The ambiguity in the redshift is still large enough to prevent precise studies of the EBL and the intrinsic blazar spectrum. Given the difficulty of measuring spectroscopic redshifts for BL-Lac objects directly, we aim to establish a reliable redshift value for this blazar by finding its host group of galaxies. Elliptical galaxies are associated with groups, and BL-Lac objects are typically hosted by them, so we decided to search for the host group of the blazar. For this, we performed optical spectroscopic observations of thirty objects in the field of view of PKS 1424+240 using the Gemini MOS. After analysing the data for groups, we evaluated the probability of finding groups of galaxies by chance around the position of PKS 1424+240, using a deep catalogue of groups. We also used photometric data from the SDSS catalogue to analyse the red sequence of the proposed blazar host group. We found a new group of galaxies with eight members at z = 0.6010 +- 0.003, a virial radius of R_vir = 1.53 Mpc, and a velocity dispersion of sigma_v = 813 +- 187 km/s. The photometric study indicates that more members are probably populating this previously uncatalogued group of galaxies. The probability of PKS 1424+240 being a member of this group was found to be 98%. The new group of galaxies found at z = 0.6010 +- 0.003 is very likely hosting PKS 1424+240.

Bethe-Heitler cascades as a plausible origin of hard spectra in distant TeV blazars

Context. Very high-energy (VHE) $\gamma$-ray measurements of distant TeV blazars can be nicely explained by TeV spectra induced by ultra high-energy cosmic rays. Aims. We develop a model for a plausible origin of hard spectra in distant TeV blazars. Methods. In the model, the TeV emission in distant TeV blazars is dominated by two mixed components. The first is the internal component with the photon energy around 1 TeV produced by inverse Compton scattering of the relativistic electrons on the synchrotron photons (SSC) with a correction for extragalactic background light absorbtion and the other is the external component with the photon energy more than 1 TeV produced by the cascade emission from high-energy protons propagating through intergalactic space. Results. Assuming suitable model parameters, we apply the model to observed spectra of distant TeV blazars of 1ES 0229+200. Our results show that 1) the observed spectrum properties of 1ES 0229+200, especially the TeV $\gamma$-ray tail of the observed spectra, could be reproduced in our model and 2) an expected TeV $\gamma$-ray spectrum with photon energy $>$1 TeV of 1ES 0229+200 should be comparable with the 50-hour sensitivity goal of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and the differential sensitivity curve for the one-year observation with the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO). Conclusions. We argue that strong evidence for the Bethe-Heitler cascades along the line of sight as a plausible origin of hard spectra in distant TeV blazars could be obtained from VHE observations with CTA, LHAASO, HAWC, and HiSCORE.

Warm-hot baryons comprise 5-10 per cent of filaments in the cosmic web.

Big-Bang nucleosynthesis indicates that baryons account for 5% of the Universe’s total energy content[1]. In the local Universe, the census of all observed baryons falls short of this estimate by a factor of two[2,3]. Cosmological simulations indicate that the missing baryons have not yet condensed into virialised halos, but reside throughout the filaments of the cosmic web: a low-density plasma at temperature 105–107 K known as the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM)[3,4,5,6]. There have been previous claims of the detection of warm baryons along the line of sight to distant blazars[7,8,9,10] and hot gas between interacting clusters[11,12,13,14]. These observations were however unable to trace the large-scale filamentary structure, or to estimate the total amount of warm baryons in a representative volume of the Universe. Here we report X-ray observations of filamentary structures of ten-million-degree gas associated with the galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Previous observations of this cluster[15] were unable to resolve and remove coincidental X-ray point sources. After subtracting these, we reveal hot gas structures that are coherent over 8 Mpc scales. The filaments coincide with over-densities of galaxies and dark matter, with 5-10% of their mass in baryonic gas. This gas has been heated up by the cluster's gravitational pull and is now feeding its core.

Central engine of a gamma-ray blazar resolved through the magnifying glass of gravitational microlensing

A foreground galaxy cluster is magnifying a more distant blazar by gravitationally bending the emitted radiation. Using such a lens, it is possible to resolve a jet close to the central supermassive black hole as being the source of the gamma rays. Gamma-ray emission from blazars is known to originate from jets emitted by supermassive black holes1. However, the exact location and size of the γ-ray emitting part of the jets is uncertain2,3,4,5,6. The main difficulty is the very small angular size of these sources, beyond the angular resolution of γ-ray telescopes. Here, we report a measurement of the projected size of the γ-ray jet, revealed by the detection of microlensing in the gravitationally lensed blazar PKS 1830-211. This measurement is consistent with a constraint from the intrinsic variability timescale of the blazar. Our measurement shows that the γ-ray emission originates from the vicinity of the central supermassive black hole. Combining the X-ray and γ-ray data, we use the microlensing effect to constrain the size of the X-ray source. We show that the effect of pair production of γ-rays on X-ray photons does not make the source opaque, owing to the large size of the X-ray emission region.

The reduction of distant blazars’ inverse Compton cascade emission by plasma instability induced beam plateauing

The reduction of distant blazars’ inverse Compton cascade emission by plasma instability induced beam plateauing

Discovery of very high energy γ-ray emission from the blazar 1ES 0033+595 by the MAGIC telescopes

The number of known very high energy (VHE) blazars is ∼50, which is very small in comparison to the number of blazars detected in other frequencies. This situation is a handicap for population studies of blazars, which emit about half of their luminosity in the γ-ray domain. Moreover, VHE blazars, if distant, allow for the study of the environment that the high-energy γ-rays traverse in their path towards the Earth, like the extragalactic background light (EBL) and the intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF), and hence they have a special interest for the astrophysics community. We present the first VHE detection of 1ES 0033+595 with a statistical significance of 5.5σ. The VHE emission of this object is constant throughout the MAGIC observations (2009 August and October), and can be parametrized with a power law with an integral flux above 150 GeV of (7.1 ± 1.3) × 10−12 photons cm−2 s−1 and a photon index of (3.8 ± 0.7). We model its spectral energy distribution (SED) as the result of inverse Compton scattering of synchrotron photons. For the study of the SED, we used simultaneous optical R-band data from the KVA telescope, archival X-ray data by Swift as well as INTEGRAL, and simultaneous high-energy (HE, 300 MeV–10 GeV) γ-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) observatory. Using the empirical approach of Prandini et al. (2010) and the Fermi LAT and MAGIC spectra for this object, we estimate the redshift of this source to be 0.34 ± 0.08 ± 0.05. This is a relevant result because this source is possibly one of the 10 most distant VHE blazars known to date, and with further (simultaneous) observations could play an important role in blazar population studies, as well as future constraints on the EBL and IGMF.

Breaks in gamma-ray spectra of distant blazars and transparency of the Universe

Energetic gamma rays scatter on soft background radiation when propagating through the Universe, producing electron-positron pairs (A.I. Nikishov, Sov. Phys. JETP 14, 393 (1962)). Gamma rays with energies between 100 GeV and a few TeV interact mostly with infrared background photons whose amount is poorly known experimentally but safely constrained from below by account of the contribution of observed light from known galaxies (R.C. Keenan, A.J. Barger, L.L. Cowie, and W.-H. Wang, Astrophys. J. 723, 40 (2010); arXiv: 1102.2428). The expected opacity of the intergalactic space limits the mean free path of TeV gamma rays to dozens of Megaparsecs. However, TeV photons from numerous more distant sources have been detected (S.P. Wakely and D. Horan, http://tevcat.uchicago.edu/ ). This might be interpreted, in each particular case, in terms of hardening of the emitted spectrum caused by presently unknown mechanisms at work in the sources (S. Archambault et al. (VERITAS and Fermi LAT Collaborations), Astrophys. J. 785, L16 (2014); arXiv: 1403.4308). Here we show that this interpretation is not supported by the analysis of the ensemble of all observed sources. In the frameworks of an infrared-background model with the lowest opacity (R.C. Gilmore, R.S. Somerville, J.R. Primack, and A. Dominguez, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 422, 3189 (2012); arXiv: 1104.0671), we reconstruct the emitted spectra of distant blazars and find that upward spectral breaks appear precisely at those energies where absorption effects are essential. Since these energies are very different for similar sources located at various distances, we conclude that the breaks are artefacts of the incorrect account of absorption and, therefore, the opacity of the Universe for gamma rays is overestimated even in the most conservative model. This implies that some novel physical or astrophysical phenomena should affect long-distance propagation of gamma rays. A scenario in which a part of energetic photons is converted to an inert new particle in the vicinity of the source and reconverts back close to the observer (M. Simet, D. Hooper, and P. Serpico, Phys. Rev. D 77, 063001 (2008); arXiv: 0712.2825; M. Fairbairn, T. Rashba, and S. Troitsky, Phys. Rev. D 84, 125019 (2011); arXiv:0901.4085) does not contradict our results. This new axion-like particle appears in several extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics (J. Jaeckel and A. Ringwald, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 60, 405 (2010); arXiv: 1002.0329) and may constitute the dark matter (P. Arias et al., JCAP 1206, 013 (2012); arXiv: 1201.5902).

Understanding the spectrum of a distant blazar PKS 1424 + 240 and its implications

We calculate the gamma-ray spectrum of a distant blazar, PKS 1424+240, located at redshift z⩾0.6035, where the optical depth to primary gamma rays of the highest observed energies is τ⩾5. The spectral shape agrees well with what is expected from secondary gamma rays produced in line-of-sight interactions of cosmic rays with background photons. In particular, we find an acceptable agreement with the source redshifts in the range 0.6⩽z⩽1.3. We discuss the implications of existing and future data for models of extragalactic background light (EBL) and for the redshift of the source. In the case of a future detection of temporal variability at lower energies, one can set more restrictive limits on both the source redshift and the EBL spectrum.

SDSS J114657.79+403708.6: the third most distant blazar at z = 5.0

Abstract The radio-loud quasar SDSS J114657.79+403708.6 at a redshift z = 5.0 is one of the most distant radio-loud objects. The IR-optical luminosity and spectrum suggest that its black hole has a very large mass: M = (5 ± 1) × 109 M⊙. The radio-loudness (ratio of the radio to optical flux) of the source is large (around 100), suggesting that the source is viewed at small angles from the jet axis, and could be a blazar. The X-ray observations fully confirm this hypothesis, due to the high level and hardness of the flux. This makes SDSS J114657.79+403708.6 the third most distant blazar known, after Q0906+693 (z = 5.47) and B2 1023+25 (z = 5.3). Among those, SDSS J114657.79+403708.6 has the largest black hole mass, setting interesting constraints on the mass function of heavy (&amp;gt;109 M⊙) black holes at high redshifts.

Search for very high energy gamma-rays from the z = 0.896 quasar 4C +55.17 with the MAGIC telescopes

The bright gamma-ray quasar 4C +55.17 is a distant source ($z = 0.896$) with a hard spectrum at GeV energies as observed by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the {{\it Fermi}} satellite. This source is identified as a good source candidate for very-high-energy (VHE; $> 30$ GeV) gamma rays. In general VHE gamma rays from distant sources provide an unique opportunity to study the extragalactic background light (EBL) and underlying astrophysics. The flux intensity of this source in the VHE range is investigated. Then, constraints on the EBL are derived from the attenuation of gamma-ray photons coming from the distant blazar. We searched for a gamma-ray signal from this object using the 35-hour observations taken by the MAGIC telescopes between November 2010 and January 2011. No significant VHE gamma-ray signal was detected. We computed the upper limits of the integrated gamma-ray flux at $95\%$ confidence level of $9.4 \times 10^{-12}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ and $2.5 \times 10^{-12}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ above $100$ GeV and $200$ GeV, respectively. The differential upper limits in four energy bins in the range from $80$ GeV to $500$ GeV are also derived. The upper limits are consistent with the attenuation predicted by low-flux EBL models on the assumption of a simple power-law spectrum extrapolated from LAT data.

THE HADRONIC ORIGIN OF THE HARD GAMMA-RAY SPECTRUM FROM BLAZAR 1ES 1101-232

The very hard $\gamma$-ray spectrum from distant blazars challenges the traditional synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model, which may indicate that there is the contribution of an additional high-energy component beyond the SSC emission. In this paper, we study the possible origin of the hard $\gamma$-ray spectrum from distant blazars. We develop a model to explain the hard $\gamma$-ray spectrum from blazar 1ES 1101-232. In the model, the optical and X-ray radiation would come from the synchrotron radiation of primary electrons and secondary pairs, the GeV emission would be produced by the SSC process, however, the hard $\gamma$-ray spectrum would originate from the decay of neutral pion produced through proton-photon interactions with the synchrotron radiation photons within the jet. Our model can explain the observed SED of 1ES 1101-232 well, especially the very hard $\gamma$-ray spectrum. However, our model requires the very large proton power to efficiently produce the $\gamma$-ray through proton-photon interactions.

THE INFLUENCE OF PLASMA EFFECTS OF PAIR BEAMS ON THE INTERGALACTIC CASCADE EMISSION OF BLAZARS

The attenuation of TeV γ-rays from distant blazars by the extragalactic background light (EBL) produces relativistic electron-positron pair beams. It has been shown by Broderick et. al. (2012) and Schlickeiser et. al (2012) that a pair beam traversing the intergalactic medium is unstable to linear two-stream instabilities of both electrostatic and electromagnetic nature. While for strong blazars all free pair energy is dissipated in heating the intergalactic medium and a potential electromagnetic cascade via inverse-Compton scattering with the cosmic microwave background is suppressed, we investigate the case of weak blazars where the back reaction of generated electrostatic turbulence leads to a plateauing of the electron energy spectrum. In the ultra-relativistic Thomson limit we analytically calculate the inverse-Compton spectral energy distribution for both an unplateaued and a plateaued beam scenario, showing a peak reduction factor of Rpeak ≈ 0.345. This is consistent with the FERMI non-measurements of a GeV excess in the spectrum of EBL attenuated TeV blazars. Claims on the lower bound of the intergalactic magnetic field strengths, made by several authors neglecting plasma effects, are thus put into question.