Browsing by Author "Ajello, M."

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    BASS. XXXIII. Swift-BAT Blazars and Their Jets through Cosmic Time
    (2022) Marcotulli, L.; Ajello, M.; Urry, C. M.; Paliya, V. S.; Koss, M.; Oh, K.; Madejski, G.; Ueda, Y.; Balokovic, M.; Trakhtenbrot, B.; Ricci, F.; Ricci, C.; Stern, D.; Harrison, F.; Powell, M. C.
    We derive the most up-to-date Swift-Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) blazar luminosity function in the 14-195 keV range, making use of a clean sample of 118 blazars detected in the BAT 105 month survey catalog, with newly obtained redshifts from the BAT Active Galatic Nucleus Spectroscopic Survey. We determine the best-fit X-ray luminosity function for the whole blazar population, as well as for flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) alone. The main results are: (1) at any redshift, BAT detects the most luminous blazars, above any possible break in their luminosity distribution, which means we cannot differentiate between density and luminosity evolution; (2) the whole blazar population, dominated by FSRQs, evolves positively up to redshift z similar to 4.3, confirming earlier results and implying lower number densities of blazars at higher redshifts than previously estimated. The contribution of this source class to the cosmic X-ray background at 14-195 keV can range from 5%-18%, while possibly accounting for 100% of the MeV background. We also derived the average 14 keV-10 GeV spectral energy distribution for BAT blazars, which allows us to predict the number counts of sources in the MeV range, as well as the expected number of high-energy (>100 TeV) neutrinos. A mission like COSI will detect 40 MeV blazars, of which two may have coincident neutrino detections. Finally, taking into account beaming selection effects, the distribution and properties of the parent population of these extragalactic jets are derived. We find that the distribution of viewing angles is quite narrow, with most sources aligned within <5 degrees of the line of sight. Moreover, the average Lorentz factor, Gamma = 8-12, is lower than previously suggested for these powerful sources.
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    FERMI-LAT. OBSERVATIONS. OF. HIGH-ENERGY. gamma-RAY. EMISSION. TOWARD. THE. GALACTIC. CENTER
    (2016) Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Atwood, W.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; Blandford, R.; Gómez Vargas, Germán Arturo; Bloom, E.; Bonino, R.; Bottacini, E.; Brandt, T.; Bregeon, J.; Bruel, P.
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    Sensitivity projections for dark matter searches with the Fermi large area telescope
    (2016) Sánchez M., Charles E.; Anderson, B.; Caputo, R.; Cuoco, A.; Di Mauro, M.; Drlica, A.; Gómez Vargas, Germán Arturo; Meyer, M.; Tibaldo, L.; Wood, M.; Zaharijas, G.; Zimmer, S.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Baldini, L.
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    THE NuSTAR EXTRAGALACTIC SURVEY: A FIRST SENSITIVE LOOK AT THE HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC X-RAY BACKGROUND POPULATION
    (2013) Alexander, D. M.; Stern, D.; Del Moro, A.; Lansbury, G. B.; Assef, R. J.; Aird, J.; Ajello, M.; Ballantyne, D. R.; Bauer, F. E.; Boggs, S. E.; Brandt, W. N.; Christensen, F. E.; Civano, F.; Comastri, A.; Craig, W. W.; Elvis, M.; Grefenstette, B. W.; Hailey, C. J.; Harrison, F. A.; Hickox, R. C.; Luo, B.; Madsen, K. K.; Mullaney, J. R.; Perri, M.; Puccetti, S.; Saez, C.; Treister, E.; Urry, C. M.; Zhang, W. W.; Bridge, C. R.; Eisenhardt, P. R. M.; Gonzalez, A. H.; Miller, S. H.; Tsai, C. W.
    We report on the first 10 identifications of sources serendipitously detected by the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) to provide the first sensitive census of the cosmic X-ray background source population at greater than or similar to 10 keV. We find that these NuSTAR-detected sources are approximate to 100 times fainter than those previously detected at greater than or similar to 10 keV and have a broad range in redshift and luminosity (z = 0.020-2.923 and L10-40 keV approximate to 4 x 10(41)-5 x 10(45) erg s(-1)); the median redshift and luminosity are z approximate to 0.7 and L10-40 keV approximate to 3 x 10(44) erg s(-1), respectively. We characterize these sources on the basis of broad-band approximate to 0.5-32 keV spectroscopy, optical spectroscopy, and broad-band ultraviolet-to-mid-infrared spectral energy distribution analyses. We find that the dominant source population is quasars with L10-40 keV > 10(44) erg s(-1), of which approximate to 50% are obscured with N-H greater than or similar to 10(22) cm(-2). However, none of the 10 NuSTAR sources are Compton thick (N-H greater than or similar to 10(24) cm(-2)) and we place a 90% confidence upper limit on the fraction of Compton-thick quasars (L10-40 keV > 10(44) erg s(-1)) selected at greater than or similar to 10 keV of less than or similar to 33% over the redshift range z = 0.5-1.1. We jointly fitted the rest-frame approximate to 10-40 keV data for all of the non-beamed sources with L10-40 keV > 10(43) erg s(-1) to constrain the average strength of reflection; we find R < 1.4 for Gamma = 1.8, broadly consistent with that found for local active galactic nuclei (AGNs) observed at greater than or similar to 10 keV. We also constrain the host-galaxy masses and find a median stellar mass of approximate to 10(11) M-circle dot, a factor approximate to 5 times higher than the median stellar mass of nearby high-energy selected AGNs, which may be at least partially driven by the order of magnitude higher X-ray luminosities of the NuSTAR sources. Within the low source-statistic limitations of our study, our results suggest that the overall properties of the NuSTAR sources are broadly similar to those of nearby high-energy selected AGNs but scaled up in luminosity and mass.
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    The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter
    (2017) Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.; Atwood, W. B.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bellazzini, R.; Gómez Vargas, Germán Arturo
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    The Swift/BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey. IX. The Clustering Environments of an Unbiased Sample of Local agns
    (2018) Powell, M. C.; Cappelluti, N.; Urry, C. M.; Koss, M.; Finoguenov, A.; Ricci, Claudio; Trakhtenbrot, B.; Allevato, V.; Ajello, M.; Oh, K.; Schawinski, K.; Secrest, N.
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    THE. FIRST. FERMI. LAT. SUPERNOVA. REMNANT. CATALOG
    (2016) Acero, F.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Bastieri, D.; Bellazzini, R.; Bissaldi, E.; Gómez-Vargas, Germán Arturo