MAGIC observations of the giant radio galaxy M87 in a low-emission state between 2005 and 2007

Abstract

We present the results of a long M87 monitoring campaign in very high energy $\gamma$-rays with the MAGIC-I Cherenkov telescope. We aim to model the persistent non-thermal jet emission by monitoring and characterizing the very high energy $\gamma$-ray emission of M87 during a low state. A total of 150\,h of data were taken between 2005 and 2007 with the single MAGIC-I telescope, out of which 128.6\,h survived the data quality selection. We also collected data in the X-ray and \textit{Fermi}--LAT bands from the literature (partially contemporaneous). No flaring activity was found during the campaign. The source was found to be in a persistent low-emission state, which was at a confidence level of $7\sigma$. We present the spectrum between 100\,GeV and 2\,TeV, which is consistent with a simple power law with a photon index $\Gamma =2.21\pm 0.21$ and a flux normalization at 300\,GeV of $(7.7\pm 1.3)\times 10^{-8}$ TeV${}^{-1}$ s${}^{-1}$ m${}^{-2}$. The extrapolation of the MAGIC spectrum into the GeV energy range matches the previously published \textit{Fermi}--LAT spectrum well, covering a combined energy range of four orders of magnitude with the same spectral index. We model the broad band energy spectrum with a spine layer model, which can satisfactorily describe our data.

8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables; A&A Journal version, fixed typo in the author list

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• Non-thermal emission from standing relativistic shocks: an application to red giant winds interacting with AGN jets
• Prospects for a Multi-TeV Gamma-ray Sky Survey with the LHAASO Water Cherenkov Detector Array
• A roadmap to hadronic supercriticalities: a comprehensive study of the parameter space for high-energy astrophysical sources
• Confinement and diffusion time-scales of CR hadrons in AGN-inflated bubbles
• Multi-epoch study of the gamma-ray emission within the M87 magnetosphere model
• Simultaneously unveiling the EBL and intrinsic spectral parameters of gamma-ray sources with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
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