VERITAS Follow-up of a Report of Enhanced Emission from 1ES 1727+502

ATel #17099; Amy Furniss (UC Santa Cruz) for the VERITAS Collaboration
on 22 Mar 2025; 04:41 UT
Credential Certification: Amy Furniss (afurniss@ucsc.edu)

Tweet

We report the VERITAS measurement of very-high-energy (VHE; E> 100 GeV) emission from the blazar 1ES 1727+502 (z=0.055, RA: 17 28 18.62 Dec: +50 13 10.47, J2000). Observations were carried out in response to a report of the detection of VHE gamma-ray emission from 1ES 1727+502 by LHAASO (ATel #17088). Approximately 2.2 hours of gamma-ray observations were collected by VERITAS on 2025-03-20 (UTC) in bright moonlight conditions. A preliminary analysis of the data yields a significant detection with a flux above 350 GeV of (9+/-2)X10^-8 m^-2 s^-1 or approximately (8+/-2)% of the Crab Nebula flux above the same energy. The VHE flux from the source was observed to be higher than in the low state reported historically by MAGIC [1], but lower than the enhanced emission reported by LHAASO. When compared to the 50% Crab Nebula flux reported by LHAASO, this suggests a significant decrease of the flux from the source. VERITAS has previously measured a comparable intermediate-level flux in 2013 from the same source [2]. Questions regarding the VERITAS observations should be directed to Amy Furniss (afurniss@ucsc.edu). VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona, USA, and is most sensitive to gamma rays between 85 GeV and 30 TeV (http://veritas.sao.arizona.edu). [1] Aleksic, J., et al. "Discovery of very high energy gamma-ray emission from the blazar 1ES 1727+502 with the MAGIC Telescopes" in A&A, vol. 563, pp. A90, 2014. [2] Archambault, S., et al. "VERITAS Detection of Gamma-Ray Flaring Activity From the BL Lac Object 1ES 1727+502 During Bright Moonlight Observations," in ApJ, vol. 808, no. 2, pp. 110, 2015.