ON THE REDSHIFT OF THE VERY HIGH ENERGY BLAZAR 3C 66A

被引：28

作者：

Furniss, A. ^{[1
,2
]}

Fumagalli, M. ^{[3
,4
]}

Danforth, C. ^{[5
]}

Williams, D. A. ^{[1
,2
]}

Prochaska, J. X. ^{[6
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Inst Particle Phys, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA

[2] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Dept Phys, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA

[3] Carnegie Observ, Pasadena, CA 91101 USA

[4] Princeton Univ, Dept Astrophys, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA

[5] Univ Colorado, CASA, Dept Astrophys & Planetary Sci, Boulder, CO 80309 USA

[6] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Dept Astron & Astrophys, UCO Lick Observ, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA

来源：

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL | 2013年 / 766卷 / 01期

基金：

美国国家科学基金会;

关键词：

BL Lacertae objects: individual (3C 66A); diffuse radiation; intergalactic medium; ultraviolet: general; EXTRAGALACTIC BACKGROUND LIGHT; LARGE-AREA TELESCOPE; BL LACERTAE OBJECTS; LY-ALPHA FOREST; GAMMA-RAYS; SPECTRA; DISTANT; QUASAR; LIMITS;

D O I：

10.1088/0004-637X/766/1/35

中图分类号：

P1 [天文学];

学科分类号：

0704 ;

摘要：

As a bright gamma-ray source, 3C 66A is of great interest to the high-energy astrophysics community, having a potential for placing cosmological constraints on models for the extragalactic background light (EBL) and the processes which contribute to this photon field. No firm spectroscopic redshift measurement has been possible for this blazar due to a lack of intrinsic emission and absorption features in optical spectra. We present new far-ultraviolet spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (HST/COS) of the BL Lac object 3C 66A covering the wavelength range 1132-1800 angstrom. The data show a smooth continuum with intergalactic medium absorption features which can be used to place a firm lower limit on the blazar redshift of z >= 0.3347. An upper limit is set by statistically treating the non-detection of additional absorbers beyond z = 0.3347, indicating a redshift of less than 0.41 at 99% confidence and ruling out z >= 0.444 at 99.9% confidence. We conclude by showing how the redshift limits derived from the COS spectra remove the potential for this gamma-ray emitting blazar to place an upper limit on the flux of the EBL using high energy data from a flare in 2009 October.

引用

页数：6

共 29 条

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