Constraining the IMF using TeV gamma ray absorption

Abstract

Gamma rays of ~TeV energies from distant sources suffer attenuation due to pair production off of ~1 micron EBL photons. We may exploit this process in order to indirectly measure the EBL and constrain models of galaxy formation. Here, using semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, we examine how gamma ray absorption may be used as an indirect probe of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), although there is a degeneracy with dust modeling. We point out that with the new generation of gamma ray telescopes including STACEE, MAGIC, HESS, VERITAS, and Milagro, we should soon possess a wealth of new data and a new method for probing the nature of the IMF.

contribution to "TeV Astrophysics of Extragalactic Sources" VERITAS workshop, editors M. Catanese, J. Quinn, T. Weekes; 3 pages 1 figure

References in corpus (1)

• Constraining the IMF using TeV gamma ray absorption

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Probing Galaxy Formation with TeV Gamma Ray Absorption
• A physical model for the origin of the diffuse cosmic infrared background
• Rejection of the hypothesis that Markarian 501 TeV photons are pure Bose-Einstein condensates
• Constraining the IMF using TeV gamma ray absorption