Measurement of the extragalactic background light spectral energy distribution with VERITAS

Abstract

The extragalactic background light (EBL), a diffuse photon field in the optical and infrared range, is a record of radiative processes over the Universe's history. Spectral measurements of blazars at very high energies ($>$100 GeV) enable the reconstruction of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the EBL, as the blazar spectra are modified by redshift- and energy-dependent interactions of the gamma-ray photons with the EBL. The spectra of 14 VERITAS-detected blazars are included in a new measurement of the EBL SED that is independent of EBL SED models. The resulting SED covers an EBL wavelength range of 0.56--56 $\mu$m, and is in good agreement with lower limits obtained by assuming that the EBL is entirely due to radiation from cataloged galaxies.

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (10)

• The First VERITAS Telescope
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• 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
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• Gamma-Hadron Separation Methods for the VERITAS Array of Four Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes
• The Resolved Near-Infrared Extragalactic Background
• The Resolved NIR Extragalactic Background
• Improved $\gamma$/hadron separation for the detection of faint gamma-ray sources using boosted decision trees
• Gamma-ray Observations Under Bright Moonlight with VERITAS

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