Stellar Photon and Blazar Archaeology with Gamma-rays

TL;DR

This paper discusses how gamma-ray observations of blazars can be used to study the history of star formation and intergalactic photon densities, as well as determine blazar redshifts and evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a method to use gamma-ray spectral cutoffs to infer the universe's photon density history and blazar properties, enhancing understanding of cosmic evolution.

Findings

Evidence suggests flatter spectrum TeV blazars have higher intrinsic luminosities.

Potential correlation between spectral flatness, luminosity, and redshift.

Gamma-ray spectral cutoffs can help determine blazar redshifts and cosmic star formation history.

Abstract

Ongoing deep surveys of galaxy luminosity functions, spectral energy distributions and backwards evolution models of star formation rates can be used to calculate the past history of intergalactic photon densities and, from them, the present and past optical depth of the universe. This procedure can be reversed by looking for sharp cutoffs in the spectra of extragalactic gamma-ray sources at high redshifts in the multi-GeV energy range with GLAST. Determining the cutoff energies of sources with known redshifts and little intrinsic absorption can enable a more precise determination of the past intergalactic photon density and thus allow a better determination of the past history of the total star formation rate, including that from galaxies too faint to be observed. Conversely, observations of sharp high energy cutoffs in the gamma-ray spectra of blazars at unknown redshifts can be used instead of spectral lines to give a measure of their redshifts. Also, given a knowledge photon densities, one can derive the intrinsic gamma-ray spectra and luminosities of blazars over a range of redshifts and look for possible trends in blazar evolution. I present some evidence hinting that TeV blazars with flatter spectra have higher intrinsic TeV gamma-ray luminosities and that there may be a correlation of flatness and luminosity with redshift. (abridged)