1. Veritas observations of the gamma-ray binary LS I+61 303
- Author
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Acciari, V. A., Beilicke, M., Blaylock, G., Bradbury, S. M., Buckley, J. H., Bugaev, V., Butt, Y., Byrum, K. L., Celik, O., Cesarini, A., Ciupik, L., Chow, Y. C. K., Cogan, P., Colin, P., Cui, W., Daniel, M. K., Duke, C., Ergin, T., Falcone, A. D., Fegan, S. J., Finley, J. P., Fortin, P., Fortson, L. F., Gall, D., Gibbs, K., Gillanders, G. H., Grube, J., Guenette, R., Hanna, D., Hays, E., Holder, J., Horan, D., Hughes, S. B., Hui, C. M., Humensky, T. B., Kaaret, P., Kieda, D. B., Kildea, J., Konopelko, A., Krawczynski, H., Krennrich, F., Lang, M. J., LeBohec, S., Lee, K., Maier, G., McCann, A., McCutcheon, M., Millis, J., Moriarty, P., Mukherjee, R., Nagai, T., Ong, R. A., Pandel, D., Perkins, J. S., Pizlo, F., Pohl, M., Quinn, J., Ragan, K., Reynolds, P. T., Rose, H. J., Schroedter, M., Sembroski, G. H., Smith, A. W., Steele, D., Swordy, S. P., Toner, J. A., Valcarcel, L., Vassiliev, V. V., Wagner, R., Wakely, S. P., Ward, J. E., Weekes, T. C., Weinstein, A., White, R. J., Williams, D. A., Wissel, S. A., Wood, M., and Zitzer, B.
- Subjects
acceleration of particles ,binaries : general ,gamma rays ,observations ,stars : individual (LS I+61 303) ,Astronomy & Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,High Energy Physics::Experiment - Abstract
LS I +61 303 is one of only a few high-mass X-ray binaries currently detected at high significance in very high energy gamma-rays. The system was observed over several orbital cycles ( between 2006 September and 2007 February) with the VERITAS array of imaging air Cerenkov telescopes. A signal of gamma-rays with energies above 300 GeV is found with a statistical significance of 8.4 standard deviations. The detected flux is measured to be strongly variable; the maximum flux is found during most orbital cycles at apastron. The energy spectrum for the period of maximum emission can be characterized by a power law with a photon index of Gamma = 2.40 +/- 0.16(stat) +/- 0.2(sys) and a flux above 300 GeV corresponding to 15% - 20% of the flux from the Crab Nebula.
- Published
- 2008