Multiwavelength observations of the previously unidentified blazar rx j0648.7+1516
Aliu, E. ; Aune, T. ; Beilicke, M. ; Benbow, W. ; Böttcher, M. ; Bouvier, A. ; Bradbury, S. M. ; Buckley, J. H. ; Bugaev, V. ; Cannon, A. ... show 10 more
Aliu, E.
Aune, T.
Beilicke, M.
Benbow, W.
Böttcher, M.
Bouvier, A.
Bradbury, S. M.
Buckley, J. H.
Bugaev, V.
Cannon, A.
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Publication Date
2011-11-15
Type
Article
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Aliu, E. Aune, T.; Beilicke, M.; Benbow, W.; Böttcher, M.; Bouvier, A.; Bradbury, S. M.; Buckley, J. H.; Bugaev, V.; Cannon, A.; Cesarini, A.; Ciupik, L.; Connolly, M. P.; Cui, W.; Decerprit, G.; Dickherber, R.; Duke, C.; Errando, M.; Falcone, A.; Feng, Q.; Finnegan, G.; Fortson, L.; Furniss, A.; Galante, N.; Gall, D.; Gillanders, G. H.; Godambe, S.; Griffin, S.; Grube, J.; Gyuk, G.; Hanna, D.; Hivick, B.; Holder, J.; Huan, H.; Hughes, G.; Hui, C. M.; Humensky, T. B.; Kaaret, P.; Karlsson, N.; Kertzman, M.; Kieda, D.; Krawczynski, H.; Krennrich, F.; Maier, G.; Majumdar, P.; McArthur, S.; McCann, A.; Moriarty, P.; Mukherjee, R.; Nelson, T.; Ong, R. A.; Orr, M.; Otte, A. N.; Park, N.; Perkins, J. S.; Pichel, A.; Pohl, M.; Prokoph, H.; Quinn, J.; Ragan, K.; Reyes, L. C.; Reynolds, P. T.; Roache, E.; Rose, H. J.; Ruppel, J.; Saxon, D. B.; Sembroski, G. H.; Skole, C.; Smith, A. W.; Staszak, D.; Tešić, G.; Theiling, M.; Thibadeau, S.; Tsurusaki, K.; Tyler, J.; Varlotta, A.; Vassiliev, V. V.; Wakely, S. P.; Weekes, T. C.; Weinstein, A.; Williams, D. A.; Zitzer, B.; Ciprini, S.; Fumagalli, M.; Kaplan, K.; Paneque, D.; Prochaska, J. X.; , (2011). Multiwavelength observations of the previously unidentified blazar rx j0648.7+1516. The Astrophysical Journal 742 (2),
Abstract
We report on the VERITAS discovery of very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission above 200 GeV from the high-frequency-peaked BL Lac (HBL) object RX J0648.7+1516 (GB J0648+1516), associated with 1FGL J0648.8+1516. The photon spectrum above 200 GeV is fitted by a power law dN/dE = F-0(E/E-0)(-Gamma) with a photon index Gamma of 4.4 +/- 0.8(stat) +/- 0.3(syst) and a flux normalization F-0 of (2.3 +/- 0.5(stat) +/- 1.2(sys)) x 10(-11) TeV-1 cm(-2) s(-1) with E-0 = 300 GeV. No VHE variability is detected during VERITAS observations of RX J0648.7+1516 between 2010 March 4 and April 15. Following the VHE discovery, the optical identification and spectroscopic redshift were obtained using the Shane 3 m Telescope at the Lick Observatory, showing the unidentified object to be a BL Lac type with a redshift of z = 0.179. Broadband multiwavelength observations contemporaneous with the VERITAS exposure period can be used to subclassify the blazar as an HBL object, including data from the MDM observatory, Swift-UVOT, and X-Ray Telescope, and continuous monitoring at photon energies above 1 GeV from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). We find that in the absence of undetected, high-energy rapid variability, the one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model overproduces the high-energy gamma-ray emission measured by the Fermi-LAT over 2.3 years. The spectral energy distribution can be parameterized satisfactorily with an external-Compton or lepto-hadronic model, which have two and six additional free parameters, respectively, compared to the one-zone SSC model.
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Publisher
IOP Publishing
Publisher DOI
10.1088/0004-637x/742/2/127
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland