RT Journal Article
T1 High zenith angle observations of PKS 2155-304 with the MAGIC-I telescope
A1 Antoranz Canales, Pedro
A1 Barrio Uña, Juan Abel
A1 Contreras González, José Luis
A1 Fonseca González, María Victoria
A1 López Moya, Marcos
A1 Miranda Pantoja, José Miguel
A1 Nieto Castaño, Daniel
A1 Satalecka, Konstanzja
A1 Scapin, Valeria
AB Context. The high frequency peaked BL Lac PKS 2155-304 with a redshift of z = 0.116 was discovered in 1997 in the very high energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray range by the University of Durham Mark VI gamma-ray Cherenkov telescope in Australia with a flux corresponding to 20% of the Crab Nebula flux. It was later observed and detected with high significance by the southern Cherenkov observatory H. E. S. S. establishing this source as the best studied southern TeV blazar. Detection from the northern hemisphere is difficult due to challenging observation conditions under large zenith angles. In July 2006, the H. E. S. S. collaboration reported an extraordinary outburst of VHE gamma-emission. During the outburst, the VHE gamma-ray emission was found to be variable on the time scales of minutes and with a mean flux of similar to 7 times the flux observed from the Crab Nebula. Follow-up observations with the MAGIC-I standalone Cherenkov telescope were triggered by this extraordinary outburst and PKS 2155-304 was observed between 28 July to 2 August 2006 for 15 h at large zenith angles. Aims. We studied the behavior of the source after its extraordinary flare. Furthermore, we developed an analysis method in order to analyze these data taken under large zenith angles. Methods. Here we present an enhanced analysis method for data taken at high zenith angles. We developed improved methods for event selection that led to a better background suppression. Results. The quality of the results presented here is superior to the results presented previously for this data set: detection of the source on a higher significance level and a lower analysis threshold. The averaged energy spectrum we derived has a spectral index of (-3.5 +/- 0.2) above 400 GeV, which is in good agreement with the spectral shape measured by H. E. S. S. during the major flare on MJD 53 944. Furthermore, we present the spectral energy distribution modeling of PKS 2155-304. With our observations we increased the duty cycle of the source extending the light curve derived by H. E. S. S. after the outburst. Finally, we find night-by-night variability with a maximal amplitude of a factor three to four and an intranight variability in one of the nights (MJD 53 945) with a similar amplitude.
PB EDP Sciencies
SN 0004-6361
YR 2012
FD 2012-08
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/44141
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/44141
LA eng
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NO © ESO, 2012. We would like to thank the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias for the excellent working conditions at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma. The support of the German BMBF and MPG, the Italian INFN, the Swiss National Fund SNF, and the Spanish MICINN is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by the Marie Curie program, by the CPAN CSD2007-00042 and MultiDark CSD2009-00064 projects of the Spanish Consolider-Ingenio 2010 programme, by grant DO02-353 of the Bulgarian NSF, by grant 127740 of the Academy of Finland, by the YIP of the Helmholtz Gemeinschaft, by the DFG Cluster of Excellence “Origin and Structure of the Universe”, by the DFG Collaborative Research Centers SFB823/C4 and SFB876/C3, and by the Polish MNiSzW grant 745/N-HESSMAGIC /2010/0. We thank R. Bühler, L. Costamante and B. Giebels for providing H.E.S.S. and multi-wavelength data. We also thank the anonymous referee for useful comments which helped to improve the manuscript.
NO German BMBF
NO German MPG
NO Italian INFN
NO Swiss National Fund SNF
NO Spanish MICINN
NO Marie Curie program
NO Spanish Consolider-Ingenio 2010 programme
NO Bulgarian NSF
NO Academy of Finland
NO YIP of the Helmholtz Gemeinschaft
NO DFG Cluster of Excellence “Origin and Structure of the Universe”
NO DFG Collaborative Research Centers
NO Polish MNiSzW
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 oct 2024