Discovery of VHE emission from PKS 0447-439 with H.E.S.S. and MWL studies

TL;DR

This paper reports the detection of very-high energy gamma-ray emission from the blazar PKS 0447-439 using H.E.S.S., combined with multi-wavelength observations revealing rapid X-ray flaring and constraining the source's redshift.

Contribution

First detection of VHE emission from PKS 0447-439 with H.E.S.S., integrated with multi-wavelength data to analyze flux evolution and estimate redshift.

Findings

VHE gamma-ray emission detected from PKS 0447-439.

Rapid X-ray flaring observed with Swift and RXTE.

Redshift upper limit constrained using combined data.

Abstract

Very-high energy (VHE) emission has been detected from PKS 0447-439 with the H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescope array. This blazar is one of the brightest hard-spectrum extragalactic objects in the Fermi bright source list. Its detection with H.E.S.S. triggered Target of Opportunity observations with the Swift and RXTE telescopes, which show rapid flaring in the X-ray band. The spectrum and light curve measured by H.E.S.S. are presented. Along with the Fermi LAT data it is possible to put an upper limit on the redshift of the source. Implications of the flux evolution are discussed briefly.