Determination of the Point-spread Function for the Fermi Large Area Telescope from On-orbit Data and Limits on Pair Halos of Active Galactic Nuclei
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en
Article de revue
Este ítem está publicado en
The Astrophysical Journal. 2013, vol. 765, p. 54
American Astronomical Society
Resumen en inglés
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a pair-conversion telescope designed to detect photons with energies from ≈20 MeV to >300 GeV. The pre-launch response functions of the LAT were ...Leer más >
The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a pair-conversion telescope designed to detect photons with energies from ≈20 MeV to >300 GeV. The pre-launch response functions of the LAT were determined through extensive Monte Carlo simulations and beam tests. The point-spread function (PSF) characterizing the angular distribution of reconstructed photons as a function of energy and geometry in the detector is determined here from two years of on-orbit data by examining the distributions of γ rays from pulsars and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Above 3 GeV, the PSF is found to be broader than the pre-launch PSF. We checked for dependence of the PSF on the class of γ-ray source and observation epoch and found none. We also investigated several possible spatial models for pair-halo emission around BL Lac AGNs. We found no evidence for a component with spatial extension larger than the PSF and set upper limits on the amplitude of halo emission in stacked images of low- and high-redshift BL Lac AGNs and the TeV blazars 1ES0229+200 and 1ES0347-121.< Leer menos
Palabras clave en inglés
galaxies: active
galaxies: halos
gamma rays: galaxies
instrumentation: detectors
intergalactic medium
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