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The 2014 TeV γ-Ray Flare of Mrk 501 Seen with H.E.S.S.: Temporal and Spectral Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation

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posted on 2019-05-01, 09:04 authored by H Abdalla, F Aharonian, FA Benkhali, EO Angüner, M Arakawa, C Arcaro, C Armand, M Arrieta, M Backes, M Barnard, Y Becherini, JB Tjus, D Berge, S Bernhard, K Bernlöhr, R Blackwell, M Böttcher, C Boisson, J Bolmont, S Bonnefoy, P Bordas, J Bregeon, F Brun, P Brun, M Bryan, M Büchele, T Bulik, T Bylund, M Capasso, S Caroff, A Carosi, M Cerruti, N Chakraborty, S Chandra, RCG Chaves, A Chen, S Colafrancesco, B Condon, ID Davids, C Deil, J Devin, P Dewilt, L Dirson, A Djannati-Ataï, A Dmytriiev, A Donath, V Doroshenko, LOC Drury, J Dyks, K Egberts, G Emery, JP Ernenwein, S Eschbach, S Fegan, A Fiasson, G Fontaine, S Funk, M Füßling, S Gabici, YA Gallant, F Gaté, G Giavitto, D Glawion, JF Glicenstein, D Gottschall, MH Grondin, J Hahn, M Haupt, G Heinzelmann, G Henri, G Hermann, JA Hinton, W Hofmann, C Hoischen, TL Holch, M Holler, D Horns, D Huber, H Iwasaki, A Jacholkowska, M Jamrozy, D Jankowsky, F Jankowsky, L Jouvin, I Jung-Richardt, MA Kastendieck, K Katarzyński, M Katsuragawa, U Katz, D Kerszberg, D Khangulyan, B Khélifi, J King, S Klepser, W Kluźniak, N Komin, K Kosack
The blazar Mrk 501 (z = 0.034) was observed at very-high-energy (VHE, E ≳ 100 GeV) gamma-ray wavelengths during a bright flare on the night of 2014 June 23-24 (MJD 56832) with the H.E.S.S. phase-II array of Cherenkov telescopes. Data taken that night by H.E.S.S. at large zenith angle reveal an exceptional number of gamma-ray photons at multi-TeV energies, with rapid flux variability and an energy coverage extending significantly up to 20 TeV. This data set is used to constrain Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) using two independent channels: a temporal approach considers the possibility of an energy dependence in the arrival time of gamma-rays, whereas a spectral approach considers the possibility of modifications to the interaction of VHE gamma-rays with extragalactic background light (EBL) photons. The non-detection of energy-dependent time delays and the non-observation of deviations between the measured spectrum and that of a supposed power-law intrinsic spectrum with standard EBL attenuation are used independently to derive strong constraints on the energy scale of LIV (E QG) in the subluminal scenario for linear and quadratic perturbations in the dispersion relation of photons. For the case of linear perturbations, the 95% confidence level limits obtained are E QG,1 > 3.6 ×1017 GeV using the temporal approach and E QG,1 > 2.6 ×1019 GeV using the spectral approach. For the case of quadratic perturbations, the limits obtained are E QG,2 > 8.5 ×1010 GeV using the temporal approach and E QG,2 > 7.8 ×1011 GeV using the spectral approach.

Funding

The support of the Namibian authorities and of the University of Namibia in facilitating the construction and operation of H.E.S.S. is gratefully acknowledged, as is the support by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), the Max Planck Society, the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Helmholtz Association, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS/IN2P3 and CNRS/INSU), the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), the U.K. Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the National Science Centre, Poland grant No. 2016/22/M/ST9/00382, the South African Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation, the University of Namibia, the National Commission on Research, Science & Technology of Namibia (NCRST), the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and by the University of Amsterdam. We appreciate the excellent work of the technical support staff in Berlin, Zeuthen, Heidelberg, Palaiseau, Paris, Saclay, Tübingen, and in Namibia in the construction and operation of the equipment. This work benefited from services provided by the H.E.S.S. Virtual Organisation, supported by the national resource providers of the EGI Federation. This work benefits from the triggers received from the FACT collaboration.

History

Citation

Astrophysical Journal, 2019, 870 93

Author affiliation

/Organisation/COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING/Department of Physics and Astronomy

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Published in

Astrophysical Journal

Publisher

American Astronomical Society, IOP Publishing

issn

0004-637X

eissn

1538-4357

Acceptance date

2018-11-15

Copyright date

2019

Available date

2019-05-01

Publisher version

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aaf1c4/meta

Language

en

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