Prospects for Very High Energy Blazar Survey by the Next Generation Cherenkov Telescopes

Abstract

The prospects for future blazar surveys by next-generation very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray telescopes, such as Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System (AGIS) and Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), are investigated using the latest model of blazar luminosity function and its evolution which is in good agreement with the flux and redshift distribution of observed blazars as well as the extragalactic gamma-ray background. We extend and improve the template of spectral energy distributions (SEDs) based on the blazar SED sequence paradigm, to make it reliable also in the VHE bands (above 100 GeV) by comparing with the existing VHE blazar data. Assuming the planned CTA sensitivities, a blind survey using a total survey time of ~100 hrs could detect ~3 VHE blazars, with larger expected numbers for wider/shallower surveys. We also discuss following-up of Fermi blazars. Detectability of VHE blazars in the plane of Fermi flux and redshift is presented, which would be useful for future survey planning. Prospects and strategies are discussed to constrain the extragalactic background light (EBL) by using the absorption feature of brightest blazar spectra, as well as cut-offs in the redshift distribution. We will be able to get useful constraints on EBL by VHE blazars at different redshifts ranging 0.3-1 TeV corresponding to z=0.10-0.36.

11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ

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Cited by in corpus (18)

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• The Luminosity Function of Fermi-detected Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars
• Extragalactic Background Light from Hierarchical Galaxy Formation: Gamma-ray Attenuation up to the Epoch of Cosmic Reionization and the First Stars
• Contribution of the Gamma-ray Loud Radio Galaxies Core Emissions to the Cosmic MeV and GeV Gamma-Ray Background Radiation
• Surveys with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Neutrinos and Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic-Ray Nuclei from Blazars
• Active Galactic Nuclei under the scrutiny of CTA
• Tomography of the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray diffuse extragalactic signal via cross-correlations with galaxy catalogs
• Upper Limit on the Cosmological Gamma-ray Background
• Gamma-ray Luminosity and Photon Index Evolution of FSRQ Blazars and Contribution to the Gamma-ray Background
• Potential of EBL and cosmology studies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• High Energy Gamma-ray Absorption and Cascade Emission in Nearby Starburst Galaxies
• Hunting extreme BL Lacertae blazars with Fermi-LAT
• Prospects for future very high-energy gamma-ray sky survey: impact of secondary gamma rays
• Searching for the most distant blazars with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
• Lower Bound on the Cosmic TeV Gamma-ray Background Radiation
• Extragalactic Gamma-ray Background Radiation from Beamed and Unbeamed Active Galactic Nuclei
• Cherenkov telescope array extragalactic survey discovery potential and the impact of axion-like particles and secondary gamma rays