New constraints on the Mid-IR EBL from the HESS discovery of VHE gamma rays from 1ES 0229+200

TL;DR

This study reports the detection of very high energy gamma-ray emission from 1ES 0229+200 by HESS, providing new constraints on the mid-infrared extragalactic background light and revealing a hard intrinsic spectrum.

Contribution

It presents the first VHE gamma-ray detection of 1ES 0229+200 and constrains the EBL density using its spectrum, advancing understanding of the intergalactic medium.

Findings

Detected VHE gamma rays from 1ES 0229+200 at 6.6 sigma significance

Measured a hard power-law spectrum with Gamma ~ 2.5 from 500 GeV to 15 TeV

Provided the strongest constraints to date on the mid-IR EBL density

Abstract

AIMS: To investigate the very high energy (VHE: >100 GeV) gamma-ray emission from the high-frequency peaked BL Lac 1ES 0229+200. METHODS: Observations of 1ES 0229+200 at energies above 580 GeV were performed with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) in 2005 and 2006. RESULTS: 1ES 0229+200 is discovered by HESS to be an emitter of VHE photons. A signal is detected at the 6.6 sigma level in the HESS observations (41.8 h live time). The integral flux above 580 GeV is (9.4 +- 1.5 {stat} +- 1.9 {syst}) x 10^{-13} cm^{-2} s^{-1}, corresponding to ~1.8% of the flux observed from the Crab Nebula. The data show no evidence for significant variability on any time scale. The observed spectrum is characterized by a hard power law (Gamma = 2.50 +- 0.19 {stat} +- 0.10 {syst}) from 500 GeV to ~15 TeV. CONCLUSIONS: The high-energy range and hardness of the observed spectrum, coupled with the object's relatively large redshift (z=0.1396), enable the strongest constraints so far on the density of the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) in the mid-infrared band. Assuming that the emitted spectrum is not harder than Gamma_{int} ~ 1.5, the HESS data support an EBL spectrum ~ lambda^{-1} and density close to the lower limit from source counts measured by Spitzer, confirming the previous indications from the HEGRA data of 1ES 1426+428 (z=0.129). Irrespective of the EBL models used, the intrinsic spectrum of 1ES 0229+200 is hard, thus locating the high-energy peak of its spectral energy distribution above a few TeV.