Target of opportunity observations of flaring blazars with VERITAS
Abstract
VERITAS is an array of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes that observes gamma-ray sources in the very high energy range (VHE, E>100 GeV). A large fraction of the known gamma-ray sources are of extragalactic origin and belong to the blazar class: active galactic nuclei with relativistic jets pointing along the line of sight. Gamma-ray emission from blazars is typically variable. Part of the VERITAS observation program is devoted to follow-up triggers on flaring blazars, initiated by observations at other wavelengths. We will present those target of opportunity observations based on optical and GeV (Fermi-LAT) alerts performed with VERITAS during the past 2 seasons, and discuss the results in a multiwavelength context.
- Publication:
-
International Cosmic Ray Conference
- Pub Date:
- 2011
- DOI:
- 10.7529/ICRC2011/V08/0992
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1110.1028
- Bibcode:
- 2011ICRC....8..133E
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, to appear in proceedings of the 32nd ICRC, Beijing, China