2010
Exploring the TeV sky with VERITAS
by
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Pacific/Honolulu
Rm. 417 (UHM - Watanabe Hall)
Rm. 417
UHM - Watanabe Hall
2505 Correa Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
Description
Special Seminar
The TeV sky has seen an explosion in the number of sources as a new generation of ground-based instruments have revealed a universe that is surprisingly rich and complex at the highest gamma-ray energies. The success of TeV gamma-ray astronomy has been largely fueled by a vigorous rate of evolution in imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) such as VERITAS, H.E.S.S. and MAGIC. In this talk, I will describe recent results from the VERITAS blazar discovery program. Blazars, a subclass of active galactic nuclei, are among the most energetic and violent objects in the known universe. Very high energy (E> 100 GeV) observations of blazars allow us to better understand blazar emission mechanisms, jet structures, black hole accretion, and the extragalactic background light (EBL). Finally, a summary of my work, aimed at detecting absorption of TeV photons by the EBL along with the recent discovery of variable emission from the blazar 1ES 1218+304 will be presented.
The TeV sky has seen an explosion in the number of sources as a new generation of ground-based instruments have revealed a universe that is surprisingly rich and complex at the highest gamma-ray energies. The success of TeV gamma-ray astronomy has been largely fueled by a vigorous rate of evolution in imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT) such as VERITAS, H.E.S.S. and MAGIC. In this talk, I will describe recent results from the VERITAS blazar discovery program. Blazars, a subclass of active galactic nuclei, are among the most energetic and violent objects in the known universe. Very high energy (E> 100 GeV) observations of blazars allow us to better understand blazar emission mechanisms, jet structures, black hole accretion, and the extragalactic background light (EBL). Finally, a summary of my work, aimed at detecting absorption of TeV photons by the EBL along with the recent discovery of variable emission from the blazar 1ES 1218+304 will be presented.