The MAGIC collaboration reports the detection of the blazar S50716+714 (redshift uncertain) in very high energy gamma-rays. The observations were performed in November 2007 and in April 2008, and were triggered by the KVA telescope due to the high optical state of the object. The blazar S50716+714 is the third low frequency BL Lac detected at energies above 100 GeV until today. Here, we present the results of the MAGIC observations.
Blazars are among the most powerful accelerators and are expected to produce a bright TeV $γ$-ray flux. However, TeV $γ$-rays are attenuated by interactions with intergalactic radiation before reaching Earth. These interactions produce cascades that transfer TeV power into the GeV band, powering both extended halos around bright sources and a large contribution to the isotropic $γ$-ray background (IGRB). Using conservative blazar models and recent IGRB measurements, we rule out scenarios where blazars effectively transfer their multi-TeV power into GeV $γ$-rays. Three possible solutions includ…
At TeV energies and above gamma rays can induce electromagnetic cascades, whose charged component is sensitive to intervening intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs). When interpreting gamma-ray measurements in the energy range between a few GeV and hundreds of TeV, one has to carefully account for effects due to IGMFs, which depend on their strength and power spectrum. Therefore, gamma-ray-induced electromagnetic cascades can be used as probes of cosmic magnetism, since their arrival distribution as well as spectral and temporal properties can provide unique information about IGMFs, whose origi…
We consider implications of high-energy neutrino emission from blazar flares, including the recent event IceCube-170922A and the 2014-2015 neutrino flare that could originate from TXS 0506+056. First, we discuss their contribution to the diffuse neutrino intensity taking into account various observational constraints. Blazars are likely to be subdominant in the diffuse neutrino intensity at sub-PeV energies, and we show that blazar flares like those of TXS 0506+056 could make <1-10 percent of the total neutrino intensity. We also argue that the neutrino output of blazars can be dominated by th…
We suggest that ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) may be accelerated in ultra-relativistic flows via a one-shot mechanism, the "espresso" acceleration, in which already-energetic particles are generally boosted by a factor of $\simΓ^2$ in energy, where $Γ$ is the flow Lorentz factor. More precisely, we consider blazar-like jets with $Γ\gtrsim 30$ propagating into a halo of "seed" CRs produced in supernova remnants, which can accelerate UHECRs up to $10^{20}$\,eV. Such a re-acceleration process naturally accounts for the chemical composition measured by the Pierre Auger Collaboration, w…