Strong New Constraints on the Extragalactic Background Light in the Near- to Mid-IR

Abstract

Direct measurements of the extragalactic background light (EBL) in the near-IR to mid-IR waveband are extremely difficult due to an overwhelming foreground from the zodiacal light that outshines the faint cosmological diffuse radiation field by more than an order of magnitude. Indirect constraints on the EBL are provided by gamma-ray observations of AGN. Using the combination of the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope together with the current generation of ground-based air Cherenkov telescopes (H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS) provides unprecedented sensitivity and spectral coverage for constraining the EBL in the near- to mid-IR. In this paper we present new limits on the EBL based on the analysis of the broad-band spectra of a select set of gamma-ray blazars covering 200 MeV to several TeV. The EBL intensity at 15 microns is constrained to be 1.36 +/- 0.58 nW m^-2 sr^-1. We find that the fast evolution and baseline EBL models of Stecker et al. (2006), as well as the model of Kneiske et al. (2004), predict significantly higher EBL intensities in the mid-IR (15 microns) than is allowed by the constraints derived here. In addition, the model of Franceschini et al. (2008) and the fiducial model of Dominguez et al. (2011) predict near- to mid-IR ratios smaller than that predicted by our analysis. Namely, their intensities in the near-IR are too low while their intensities in the mid-IR are marginally too high. All of the aforementioned models are inconsistent with our analysis at the >3 sigma level.

37 pages, 13 figures, updated subject headings, accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (22)

• Extragalactic Background Light Inferred from AEGIS Galaxy SED-type Fractions
• VHE Gamma-Ray Observation of the Crab Nebula and its Pulsar with the MAGIC telescope
• Evidence for a new light spin-zero boson from cosmological gamma-ray propagation?
• New constraints on the Mid-IR EBL from the HESS discovery of VHE gamma rays from 1ES 0229+200
• The Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background is detectable in Super-Kamiokande
• New limits on the density of the extragalactic background light in the optical to the far-infrared from the spectra of all known TeV blazars
• Observations of Mkn 421 with the MAGIC Telescope
• Role of line-of-sight cosmic ray interactions in forming the spectra of distant blazars in TeV gamma rays and high-energy neutrinos
• SN 1994W: An Interacting Supernova or Two Interacting Shells?
• Hard TeV spectra of blazars and the constraints to the IR intergalactic background
• Discovery of VHE gamma-rays from the distant BL Lac 1ES 0347-121
• Simultaneous multiwavelength observations of the blazar 1ES1959+650 at a low TeV flux
• The Resolved Near-Infrared Extragalactic Background
• The Resolved NIR Extragalactic Background
• Constraining blazar distances with combined Fermi and TeV data: an empirical approach
• Discovery of VHE gamma-rays from the high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object RGB J0152+017
• Status of the VERITAS Observatory
• Probing the 3.6 Micron CIRB with Spitzer in 3 DIRBE Dark Spots
• Discovery of VHE gamma-rays from the BL Lac object PKS 0548-322
• Optical depth for VHE gamma-rays from distant sources from a generic EBL density
• Constraints to Energy Spectra of Blazars based on Recent EBL Limits from Galaxy Counts
• Ultra deep AKARI observations of Abell 2218: resolving the 15 um extragalactic background light

Cited by in corpus (54)

• The Extragalactic Background Light and the Gamma-ray Opacity of the Universe
• The Cosmic Core-collapse Supernova Rate does not match the Massive-Star Formation Rate
• The extragalactic background light, the Hubble constant, and anomalies: conclusions from 20 years of TeV gamma-ray observations
• Measurement of the extragalactic background light imprint on the spectra of the brightest blazars observed with H.E.S.S
• First lower limits on the photon-axion-like particle coupling from very high energy gamma-ray observation
• The Emission by Dust and Stars of Nearby Galaxies in the Herschel KINGFISH Survey
• Indications for a pair-production anomaly from the propagation of VHE gamma-rays
• Fermi/LAT observations of 1ES 0229+200: implications for extragalactic magnetic fields and background light
• Hardening of TeV gamma spectrum of AGNs in galaxy clusters by conversions of photons into axion-like particles
• Detection of the cosmic γ-ray horizon from multiwavelength observations of blazars
• Transparency of the Universe to gamma rays
• A Three-Year Multi-Wavelength Study of the Very High Energy Gamma-ray Blazar 1ES 0229+200
• Measurement of the EBL spectral energy distribution using the VHE gamma-ray spectra of H.E.S.S. blazars
• Limits on the extragalactic background light in the Fermi era
• Probes of Lorentz Violation
• MAGIC observations of the February 2014 flare of 1ES 1011+496 and ensuing constraint of the EBL density
• Observability of the very-high-energy emission from GRB 221009A
• Reconstructing the γ-ray Photon Optical Depth of the Universe to z~4 from Multiwavelength Galaxy Survey Data
• Gamma-rays from Blazars and the Extragalactic Background Light
• Modeling the Extragalactic Background Light and the Cosmic Star Formation History
• Can winds driven by active galactic nuclei account for the extragalactic gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds?
• Lower limits on ultrahigh-energy cosmic ray and jet powers of TeV blazars
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of the Active Galaxy 4C +55.17: Steady, Hard Gamma-Ray Emission and its Implications
• TeV Gamma-ray Astronomy: A Summary
• On weak redshift dependence of gamma-ray spectra of distant blazars
• Evidence for a cosmological effect in γ-ray spectra of BL Lacs
• Measurement of the extragalactic background light spectral energy distribution with VERITAS
• Derivation of a large isotropic diffuse sky emission component at 1.25 and 2.2um from the COBE/DIRBE data
• The BL-Lac gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240 associated with a group of galaxies at z=0.6010
• Importance of axion-like particles for very-high-energy astrophysics
• Measurements of Diffuse Sky Emission Components in High Galactic Latitudes at 3.5 and 4.9 um Using DIRBE and WISE Data
• Discovery of very high energy gamma-ray emission from the BL Lac object PKS 0301-243 with H.E.S.S
• On the Redshift of the Very High Energy Blazar 3C 66A
• Potential of EBL and cosmology studies with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Measuring the correlation length of intergalactic magnetic fields from observations of gamma-ray induced cascades
• Constraining the near-IR background light from Population-III stars using high redshift gamma-ray sources
• Gamma-rays as probes of the Universe
• The isotropic interplanetary dust cloud and near-infrared extragalactic background light observed with COBE/DIRBE
• Estimation of the Extragalactic Background Light using TeV Observations of BL~Lacs
• Search for spectral features in extragalactic background light with gamma-ray telescopes
• Extragalactic background light models and GeV-TeV observation of blazars
• An Investigation into the Spectral Properties of Bright Fermi Blazars
• Jetted Active Galactic Nuclei
• VERITAS Observations of Six Bright, Hard-Spectrum Fermi-LAT Blazars
• X-ray and Radio Follow-up Observations of High-Redshift Blazar Candidates in the Fermi-LAT Unassociated Source Population
• The extragalactic background light from the measurements of the attenuation of high-energy gamma-ray spectrum
• The origin of multi-TeV flares from the nearest blazar Markarian 421
• The nature of the intrinsic spectra from the VHE emission of H 2356-309 and 1ES 1101-232
• A gamma-ray signature of energetic sources of cosmic-ray nuclei
• Probing the extragalactic mid-infrared background with HAWC
• Selection of AGN to study the extragalactic background light with HAWC
• Redshift of the Blazar KUV 00311-1938: Modeling the EBL Absorption
• Redshift measurement of the BL-Lac gamma-ray blazar PKS 1424+240
• Cosmic connections: from cosmic rays to gamma rays, to cosmic backgrounds and magnetic fields