Probing the Extragalactic Mid-infrared Background with HAWC

Albert A, Alfaro R, Alvarez C, Arteaga-Velazquez JC, Rojas DA, Solares HAA, Babu R, Belmont-Moreno E, Caballero-Mora KS, Capistran T, Carraminana A, Casanova S, Chaparro-Amaro O, Cotti U, Cotzomi J, De Leon SC, De La Fuente E, Hernandez RD, Duvernois MA, Durocher M, Diaz-Velez JC, Engel K, Espinoza C, Fan KL, Alonso MF, Fraija N, Garcia-Gonzalez JA, Garfias F, Gonzalez MM, Goodman JA, Harding JP, Hernandez S, Huang D, Hueyotl-Zahuantitla F, Hntemeyer P, Iriarte A, Jardin-Blicq A, Joshi V, Kieda D, Lee WH, Linnemann JT, Longinotti AL, Luis-Raya G, Malone K, Martinez O, Martinez-Castro J, Matthews JA, Miranda-Romagnoli P, Moreno E, Mostafa M, Nayerhoda A, Nellen L, Newbold M, Nisa MU, Noriega-Papaqui R, Omodei N, Peisker A, Araujo YP, Perez-Perez EG, Rho CD, Rosa-Gonzalez D, Salazar H, Salazar-Gallegos D, Greus FS, Sandoval A, Serna-Franco J, Smith AJ, Son Y, Springer RW, Tibolla O, Tollefson K, Torres I, Torres-Escobedo R, Turner R, Urena-Mena F, Villasenor L, Wang X, Weisgarber T, Willox E, Zhou H, De Leon C (2022)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

Book Volume: 933

Journal Issue: 2

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac7714

Abstract

The extragalactic background light (EBL) contains all the radiation emitted by nuclear and accretion processes in stars and compact objects since the epoch of recombination. Measuring the EBL density directly is challenging, especially in the near-to-far-infrared wave band, mainly due to the zodiacal light foreground. Instead, gamma-ray astronomy offers the possibility to indirectly set limits on the EBL by studying the effects of gamma-ray absorption in the very high energy (VHE: >100 GeV) spectra of distant blazars. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma Ray Observatory (HAWC) is one of the few instruments sensitive to gamma rays with energies above 10 TeV. This offers the opportunity to probe the EBL in the near/mid-IR region: lambda = 1-100 mu m. In this study, we fit physically motivated emission models to Fermi-LAT gigaelectronvolt data to extrapolate the intrinsic teraelectronvolt spectra of blazars. We then simulate a large number of absorbed spectra for different randomly generated EBL model shapes and calculate Bayesian credible bands in the EBL intensity space by comparing and testing the agreement between the absorbed spectra and HAWC extragalactic observations of two blazars. The resulting bands are in agreement with current EBL lower and upper limits, showing a downward trend toward higher wavelength values lambda > 10 mu m also observed in previous measurements.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Michigan Technological University United States (USA) (US) Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas (UNACH) Mexico (MX) National Autonomous University of Mexico / Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Mexico (MX) National Institute for Astrophysics / Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF) Italy (IT) Polska Akademia Nauk (PAN) / Polish Academy of Sciences Poland (PL) University of Maryland United States (USA) (US) Los Alamos National Laboratory United States (USA) (US) Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) / Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics Germany (DE) Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) / Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla Mexico (MX) National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico / Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México Mexico (MX) University of New Mexico (UNM) / Universidad de Nuevo México United States (USA) (US) Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo / Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo Mexico (MX) University of Utah United States (USA) (US) Michigan State University United States (USA) (US) Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH) Mexico (MX) Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) United States (USA) (US) University of Wisconsin - Madison United States (USA) (US) Universidad de Guadalajara (UDEG) Mexico (MX) Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) Mexico (MX) Universidad Politécnica de Pachuca (UPP) Mexico (MX) Shanghai Jiao Tong University / 上海交通大学 China (CN) University of Seoul (UOS) / 서울시립대학교 Korea, Republic of (KR) Stanford University United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Albert, A., Alfaro, R., Alvarez, C., Arteaga-Velazquez, J.C., Rojas, D.A., Solares, H.A.A.,... De Leon, C. (2022). Probing the Extragalactic Mid-infrared Background with HAWC. Astrophysical Journal, 933(2). https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac7714

MLA:

Albert, A., et al. "Probing the Extragalactic Mid-infrared Background with HAWC." Astrophysical Journal 933.2 (2022).

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