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  • DEEP BROADBAND OBSERVATIONS...
    Archambault, S; Aune, T; Behera, B; BEILICKE, M; Benbow, W; Berger, K; Bird, R; Biteau, J; Bugaev, V; Byrum, K

    Astrophysical journal. Letters, 04/2014, Letnik: 785, Številka: 1
    Journal Article

    We present deep VERITAS observations of the blazar PKS 1424+240, along with contemporaneous Fermi Large Area Telescope, Swift X-ray Telescope, and Swift UV Optical Telescope data between 2009 February 19 and 2013 June 8. This blazar resides at a redshift of z > or =, slanted 0.6035, displaying a significantly attenuated gamma-ray flux above 100 GeV due to photon absorption via pair-production with the extragalactic background light. We present more than 100 hr of VERITAS observations over three years, a multiwavelength light curve, and the contemporaneous spectral energy distributions. The source shows a higher flux of (2.1 + or - 0.3) x 10 super(-7) photons m super(-2) s super(-1) above 120 GeV in 2009 and 2011 as compared to the flux measured in 2013, corresponding to (1.02 + or - 0.08) x 10 super(-7) photons m super(-2) s super(-1) above 120 GeV. The measured differential very high energy (VHE; E > or =, slanted 100 GeV) spectral indices are Gamma = 3.8 + or - 0.3, 4.3 + or - 0.6 and 4.5 + or - 0.2 in 2009, 2011, and 2013, respectively. No significant spectral change across the observation epochs is detected. We find no evidence for variability at gamma-ray opacities of greater than tau = 2, where it is postulated that any variability would be small and occur on timescales longer than a year if hadronic cosmic-ray interactions with extragalactic photon fields provide a secondary VHE photon flux. The data cannot rule out such variability due to low statistics.