New Observations with Gemini and GTC of the VHE Blazar KUV 00311–1938: About Its Redshift and Environment. (23rd December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pichel, A.; Donzelli, C.; Rosa-Gonzalez, D.; Alonso, M. Fernandez; Rovero, A. C.; Muriel, H.; Mayya, Y. D.; Aretxaga, I.; González, J. Becerra; Carramiñana, A.; Mendez-Abreu, J.; Vega, O.; Terlevich, E.; Terlevich, R. J.
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Volume 133:Number 1019(2021)
• Publication Date: 2020-12-23
• Subjects: BL Lacertae objects: KUV 00311–1938 -- Galaxy distances -- Galaxy groups; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Astronomy; Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/abcd52
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-6280

Abstract

Abstract: Extragalactic very-high-energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) sources are unique objects to study the most powerful particle accelerators in nature, as active galactic nuclei are likely sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. BL Lacertae blazars are the most frequent extragalactic objects found in the VHE gamma-ray catalogs. It is very difficult to estimate their redshifts, considering they have no strong enough optical spectral features, hence ∼20% of them have unknown or poorly constrained redshifts. KUV 00311–1938 is a VHE BL Lacertae blazar, with an uncertain redshift in the range of 0.5 < z < 0.98. We have obtained deep spectroscopy using Gemini and the GTC telescopes of KUV 00311–1938 and its surroundings with high signal-to-noise ratio in 2016–2017. The lack of features did not allow us to determine the spectroscopic redshift of KUV 00311–1938; nevertheless, we obtain a lower limit of z ≳ 0.475. We determined the redshifts of 41 galaxies observed in the field-of-view of the blazar and through a population study, identified three pairs and four groups consisting of 3 or 4 members with redshifts in the range z = 0.1468–0.4756. Due to the absence of a large group of galaxies, we could not associate KUV 00311–1938 with any of the groups detected.