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Observation of Markarian 421 in TeV gamma rays over a 14-year time span

  • V. A. Acciari
  • , T. Arlen
  • , T. Aune
  • , W. Benbow
  • , R. Bird
  • , A. Bouvier
  • , S. M. Bradbury
  • , J. H. Buckley
  • , V. Bugaev
  • , I. De La Calle Perez
  • , D. A. Carter-Lewis
  • , A. Cesarini
  • , L. Ciupik
  • , E. Collins-Hughes
  • , M. P. Connolly
  • , W. Cui
  • , C. Duke
  • , J. Dumm
  • , A. Falcone
  • , S. Federici
  • D. J. Fegan, S. J. Fegan, J. P. Finley, G. Finnegan, L. Fortson, J. Gaidos, N. Galante, D. Gall, K. Gibbs, G. H. Gillanders, S. Griffin, J. Grube, G. Gyuk, D. Hanna, D. Horan, T. B. Humensky, P. Kaaret, M. Kertzman, Y. Khassen, D. Kieda, H. Krawczynski, F. Krennrich, M. J. Lang, J. E. McEnery, A. S. Madhavan, P. Moriarty, T. Nelson, A. O'Faoláin De Bhróithe, R. A. Ong, M. Orr, A. N. Otte, J. S. Perkins, D. Petry, A. Pichel, M. Pohl, J. Quinn, K. Ragan, T. Reynolds, E. Roache, A. Rovero, M. Schroedter, G. H. Sembroski, A. Smith, I. Telezhinsky, M. Theiling, J. Toner, J. Tyler, A. Varlotta, M. Vivier, S. P. Wakely, J. E. Ward, T. C. Weekes, A. Weinstein, R. Welsing, D. A. Williams, S. Wissel
  • Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
  • Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of California at Santa Cruz
  • University College Dublin
  • University of Leeds
  • Washington University in St. Louis
  • ESAC campus
  • Iowa State University
  • IDA Business Park
  • Adler Planetarium
  • Purdue University
  • Grinnell College
  • University of Minnesota
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • University of Potsdam
  • c/o DESY
  • University of Utah
  • University of Iowa
  • McGill University
  • Barnard College
  • DePauw University
  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • University of Maryland
  • College of Computing
  • Biochemical and Environmental Engineering
  • European Southern Observatory
  • Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio
  • Cork Institute of Technology
  • Valeo Vision Systems
  • The Bartol Research Institute
  • University of Chicago

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The variability of the blazar Markarian 421 in TeV gamma rays over a 14-year time period has been explored with the Whipple 10 m telescope. It is shown that the dynamic range of its flux variations is large and similar to that in X-rays. A correlation between the X-ray and TeV energy bands is observed during some bright flares and when the complete data sets are binned on long timescales. The main database consists of 878.4 h of observation with the Whipple telescope, spread over 783 nights. The peak energy response of the telescope was 400 GeV with 20% uncertainty. This is the largest database of any TeV-emitting active galactic nucleus (AGN) and hence was used to explore the variability profile of Markarian 421. The time-averaged flux from Markarian 421 over this period was 0.446±0.008 Crab flux units. The flux exceeded 10 Crab flux units on three separate occasions. For the 2000-2001 season the average flux reached 1.86 Crab units, while in the 1996-1997 season the average flux was only 0.23 Crab units.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-10
Number of pages10
JournalAstroparticle Physics
Volume54
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2014

Keywords

  • AGN
  • Markarian 421
  • TeV gamma rays

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