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

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V. A. Acciari1, E. Aliu2, T. Arlen3, M. Beilicke4, W. Benbow5, M. Böttcher6, S. M. Bradbury7, J. H. Buckley4, V. Bugaev4, Y. Butt8, K. Byrum9, A. Cannon10, O. Celik3, A. Cesarini11, Y. C. Chow3, L. Ciupik12, P. Cogan13, W. Cui14, M. K. Daniel7,30, R. Dickherber4, T. Ergin8, A. Falcone15, S. J. Fegan3, J. P. Finley14, P. Fortin16, L. Fortson12, A. Furniss17, D. Gall14, K. Gibbs5, G. H. Gillanders11, S. Godambe18, J. Grube10, R. Guenette13, G. Gyuk12, D. Hanna13, E. Hays19, J. Holder2, D. Horan20, C. M. Hui18, T. B. Humensky21, A. Imran22, P. Kaaret23, N. Karlsson12, M. Kertzman24, D. Kieda18, J. Kildea5, A. Konopelko25, H. Krawczynski4, F. Krennrich22, M. J. Lang11, S. LeBohec18, G. Maier13, A. McCann13, M. McCutcheon13, J. Millis26, P. Moriarty1, R. Mukherjee16, T. Nagai22, R. A. Ong3, A. N. Otte17, D. Pandel23, J. S. Perkins5,31, D. Petry27, F. Pizlo14, M. Pohl22, J. Quinn10, K. Ragan13, L. C. Reyes28, P. T. Reynolds29, E. Roache5, H. J. Rose7, M. Schroedter22, G. H. Sembroski14, A. W. Smith9, D. Steele12, S. P. Swordy21, M. Theiling5, J. A. Toner11, A. Varlotta14, V. V. Vassiliev3, R. G. Wagner9, S. P. Wakely21, J. E. Ward10, T. C. Weekes5, A. Weinstein3, D. A. Williams17, S. Wissel21, M. Wood3 and B. Zitzer14

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The intermediate-frequency peaked BL Lacertae (IBL) object 3C 66A is detected during 2007-2008 in VHE (very high energy; E > 100 GeV) γ 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 (σ), in these observations (32.8 hr live time). The observed integral flux above 200 GeV is 6% of the Crab Nebula's flux and shows evidence for variability on the timescale of days. The measured energy spectrum is characterized by a soft power law with photon index Γ = 4.1 ± 0.4stat ± 0.6sys. The radio galaxy 3C 66B is excluded as a possible source of the VHE emission.


Keywords

BL Lacertae objects: individual (3C 66A); galaxies: active; gamma rays: observations


PACS

98.54.Cm Active and peculiar galaxies and related systems (including BL Lacertae objects, blazars, Seyfert galaxies, Markarian galaxies, and active galactic nuclei)

98.54.Gr Radio galaxies

95.55.Ka X- and &ggr;-ray telescopes and instrumentation

95.55.Vj Neutrino, muon, pion, and other elementary particle detectors; cosmic ray detectors

98.62.Py Distances, redshifts, radial velocities; spatial distribution of galaxies

95.85.Pw &ggr;-ray

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 2 (2009 March 10)

Received 2009 January 19, accepted for publication 2009 January 28

Published 2009 February 18



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