MAGIC discovery and multiwavelength observations of the BL Lac 1ES 1727+502

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of the BL Lac object 1ES 1727+502 as a very high energy gamma-ray source by MAGIC, supported by multiwavelength observations and modeled with a synchrotron self-Compton framework.

Contribution

First detection of 1ES 1727+502 as a VHE gamma-ray emitter using MAGIC, with comprehensive multiwavelength data analysis and modeling.

Findings

Discovery of 1ES 1727+502 as a VHE source

Multiwavelength spectral energy distribution analysis

Spectral modeling with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model

Abstract

Blazars, active galactic nuclei whose jet axis is pointed towards the observer, constitute the most numerous class of extragalactic very high energy (VHE, E > 100\, GeV) gamma-ray emitters. The MAGIC experiment, a system of two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes located in the Canary Island of La Palma (Northern hemisphere), with an energy threshold of 50 GeV, is a well suited experiment for observations of such objects. Here we present the discovery of the BL Lac 1ES 1727+502 (z = 0.055) as VHE source. This object was identified as a promising TeV candidate based on archival data and the observation that lead to this detection was not triggered by any high state alert in other wavebands. The MAGIC observations are complemented by other observations are lower frequencies: optical data from the KVA telescope, UV, optical and X-ray archival data taken with the instruments on board the Swift satellite and high energy (HE, 300 MeV < E < 100 GeV) data from the \textit{Fermi}-LAT instrument. We studied the spectral energy distribution of 1ES 1727+502 and interpreted it with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model with parameters that are typical for this class of sources.