Related papers: Whipple Observations of BL Lac Objects
The understanding of acceleration mechanisms in active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets and the measurement of the extragalactic-background-light (EBL) density are closely linked and require the detection of a large sample of very-high-energy…
We study the non-thermal jet emission of the BL Lac object B3 2247+381 during a high optical state. The MAGIC telescopes observed the source during 13 nights between September 30th and October 30th 2010, collecting a total of 14.2 hours of…
Extreme high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects (EHBLs) are blazars which exhibit extremely energetic synchrotron emission. They also feature non-thermal gamma-ray emission whose peak lies in the very high-energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) range, and…
Blazars are the most abundant type of extragalactic gamma-ray source, usually presenting high variability across the electromagnetic spectrum. Their Very High Energy (VHE, above 0.1 TeV) emission has been studied in detail using Air…
The VERITAS collaboration has observed the high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object 1ES 1218+304 using an array of several imaging Cherenkov telescopes located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Southern Arizona. A gamma-ray signal was…
1ES 0414+009 (z = 0.287) is a distant high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object, and has long been considered a likely emitter of very-high energy (VHE, E>100 GeV) gamma-rays due to its high X-ray and radio flux. Observations in the VHE gamma-ray…
We present results of multi-wavelength (MWL) observations of the high-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae (HBL) object 1ES 0806+524 (z=0.138). Triggered by a high optical state, very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) observations were carried out…
Extremely high-peaked BL Lac objects (or extreme blazars) are unique extragalactic laboratories where particle acceleration processes are pushed at their physical limits. In these blazars, synchrotron emission peaking above keV energies is…
Context. We present the discovery of very high energy (VHE, E > 100GeV) gamma-ray emission from the BL Lac object 1ES 1215+303 by the MAGIC telescopes and simultaneous multi-wavelength data in a broad energy range from radio to gamma-rays.…
The two BL Lac objects 1ES 1215+303 and 1ES 1218+304, separated by 0.8 deg, were observed with the MAGIC telescopes in 2010 and 2011. The 20 hours of data registered in January 2011 resulted in the first detection at Very High Energy (>100…
Since the beginning of scientific operations in 2003, more than 20 extra-galactic sources have been detected with H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) at very high energies (VHE): apart from the starburst galaxy NGC 253, all of them…
The low-frequency peaked BL Lac (LBL) object BL Lacertae was observed with the MAGIC telescope from 2005 August to December (22.2 hr), and from 2006 July to September (26.0 hr). A very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray signal was discovered with…
The very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray spectral indices of blazars show strong correlation with the source redshift. Absence of any such correlation in low energy gamma rays and X-rays indicate the presence of Extragalactic Background Light…
BL Lacertae is the prototype of the blazar subclass known as BL Lac type objects. BL Lacertae object itself is a low-frequency-peaked BL Lac(LBL). Very high energy (VHE) gamma ray emission from this source was discovered in 2005 by MAGIC…
The Fermi Gamma-ray Observatory discovered about a thousand extragalactic sources emitting energy from 100 MeV to 100 GeV. The majority of these sources belong to the class of blazars characterized by a quasi-featureless optical spectrum…
Cosmic opacity for very high-energy gamma rays ($E>10$ TeV) due to the interaction with the extragalactic background light can be strongly reduced because of possible Lorentz-violating terms in the particle dispersion relations expected,…
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) observations at very high energies (VHE, E > 100 GeV) can impose tight constraints on some GRB emission models. Many GRB afterglow models predict a VHE component similar to that seen in blazars and plerions, in which…
X-ray selected BL Lac objects dominate the population of extragalactic sources detected in the very high energy (VHE; photon energies >100GeV) gamma-ray regime with ground-based Cherenkov Telescopes. These are not the only extragalactic VHE…
Blazars are the most abundant class of known extragalactic very-high-energy (VHE, E>100 GeV) gamma-ray sources. However, one of the biggest difficulties in investigating their VHE emission resides in their limited number, since less than 60…
Aims: We present optical spectroscopy of a sample of BL Lac objects, to determine their redshift, to study their broad emission line properties and to characterize their close environment. Methods: Twelve objects were observed using the ESO…