Source-count Distribution of Gamma-Ray Blazars

Abstract

With ten years of operation and an exceptional dataset, the Fermi-Large Area Telescope allows us to unveil the detailed composition of the extragalactic $\gamma$-ray sky above $100\mathrm{MeV}$. In this paper, we derive the intrinsic source-count distribution (logN-logS) of extragalactic sources (i.e., blazars) at $|b|>20^{\circ }$ via the efficiency correction method. With this approach, we are able to measure the distribution down to a photon flux of $\sim 10^{-10}$$\mathrm{ph}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ and to an energy flux of $\sim 10^{-12}$$\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$. In both cases the logN-logS becomes flatter at low fluxes. Moreover, we show that this logN-logS is representative of the blazar population (assuming the majority of unassociated sources are blazars) and allows us to constrain its evolution quite effectively. Among recently proposed evolutionary models, we find that the Pure Density Evolution (PDE) model best describes the evolutionary properties of the blazar population and that their integrated emission accounts for $\sim 50_{-5}^{+10}\%$ of the total extragalactic \gm-ray background.

arXiv comment16 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables; published in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (32)

• The Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Mission
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Second Source Catalog
• Fermi Large Area Telescope First Source Catalog
• The spectrum of isotropic diffuse gamma-ray emission between 100 MeV and 820 GeV
• The Third Catalog of Active Galactic Nuclei Detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Development of the Model of Galactic Interstellar Emission for Standard Point-Source Analysis of Fermi Large Area Telescope Data
• The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter
• GeV Observations of Star-forming Galaxies with \textit{Fermi} LAT
• 3FHL: The Third Catalog of Hard Fermi-LAT Sources
• The Fermi-LAT high-latitude Survey: Source Count Distributions and the Origin of the Extragalactic Diffuse Background
• The Origin of the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background and Implications for Dark-Matter Annihilation
• Spectral Gamma-ray Signatures of Cosmological Dark Matter Annihilation
• Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of Misaligned AGN
• Resolving the Extragalactic $\gamma$-ray Background above 50 GeV with Fermi-LAT
• Contribution of the Gamma-ray Loud Radio Galaxies Core Emissions to the Cosmic MeV and GeV Gamma-Ray Background Radiation
• The nature of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background
• Diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission from misaligned active galactic nuclei
• Composition of the Fermi-LAT isotropic gamma-ray background intensity: Emission from extragalactic point sources and dark matter annihilations
• Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background from Star-Forming Galaxies
• Gamma-Ray Luminosity Function of Blazars and the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background: Evidence for the Luminosity Dependent Density Evolution
• Gamma-ray Emitting Narrow Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies in The Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Star-Forming Galaxy Contribution to the Cosmic MeV and GeV Gamma-Ray Background
• Deciphering Contributions to the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background from 2 GeV to 2 TeV
• Flux and Photon Spectral Index Distributions of Fermi-LAT Blazars And Contribution To The Extragalactic Gamma-ray Background
• Imprint of galaxy clustering in the cosmic gamma-ray background
• Unveiling the Gamma-ray Source Count Distribution Below the Fermi Detection Limit with Photon Statistics
• Deriving the contribution of blazars to the Fermi-LAT Extragalactic $\gamma$-ray background at $E>10$ GeV with efficiency corrections and photon statistics
• Impact of astrophysical processes on the gamma-ray background from dark matter annihilations
• Inverse Compton Contribution to the Star-Forming Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Background
• Tomographic imaging of the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sky through cross-correlations: A wider and deeper look
• Characterizing the local gamma-ray Universe via angular cross-correlations

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Neutrino follow-up with the Zwicky Transient Facility: Results from the first 24 campaigns
• BASS XXXIII: Swift-BAT blazars and their jets through cosmic time
• Gamma-ray and Neutrino Signals from Accretion Disk Coronae of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Investigating the detection of dark matter subhalos as extended sources with Fermi-LAT
• A Cross-correlation Study between IceCube Neutrino Events and the Fermi Unresolved Gamma-ray Sky
• Harnessing the Population Statistics of Subhalos to Search for Annihilating Dark Matter
• Identifying the 3FHL Catalog. VI. Swift Observations of 3FHL Unassociated Objects with Source Classification via Machine Learning
• Gamma-Rays from Star Forming Activity Appear to Outshine Misaligned Active Galactic Nuclei
• Extracting the gamma-ray source-count distribution below the Fermi-LAT detection limit with deep learning
• Assessing coincident neutrino detections using population models
• Active Galactic Nuclei and their demography through cosmic time
• Source Count Distribution of Fermi LAT Gamma-Ray Blazars Using Novel Nonparametric Methods
• The Gamma-ray Luminosity Function of Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars
• Deepening gamma-ray point-source catalogues with sub-threshold information