Blazar Discoveries with VERITAS

TL;DR

This paper discusses VERITAS's recent discoveries of VHE gamma-ray emissions from various blazars, enhancing understanding of their emission mechanisms and the broader AGN population.

Contribution

It reports new VHE gamma-ray detections from multiple blazars, expanding the catalog and improving insights into blazar classes and their emission properties.

Findings

Discovered VHE emission from 1ES 0806+524 and RGB J0710+591.

Detected VHE gamma rays from W Com and 3C 66A.

Expanded the VHE blazar catalog to include IBL objects.

Abstract

Blazars are among the most energetic and violent objects in the universe. By observing blazars at very high energies (VHE, E > 100 GeV) we can better understand blazar emission mechanisms, jet structure, black hole accretion and the extragalactic background light (EBL). VERITAS, an array of four 12-meter diameter imaging atmospheric-Cherenkov telescopes, performs VHE studies of blazars through intense monitoring and discovery campaigns. Most blazars known to emit VHE gamma rays are high-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae (HBL) objects, and VERITAS has discovered VHE emission from two of these: 1ES 0806+524 and RGB J0710+591. VERITAS has also discovered VHE gamma rays from two intermediate-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae (IBL) objects: W Com and 3C 66A. The expansion of the VHE catalog to include IBL objects enables a better understanding of the AGN population as a whole. This contribution presents recent results from the VERITAS blazar discovery program.