Observation of Radio Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies with VERITAS

Nicola Galante, for the VERITAS Collaboration

Published 2009-07-28Version 1

Radio galaxies are the only non-blazar extragalactic objects detected in the VHE (E >100 GeV) band. These objects enable the investigation of the main substructures of the AGN, in particular the core, the jet and its interaction with the intergalactic environment. Clusters of galaxies, instead, have not been detected by gamma-ray observatories. These objects are collections of up to thousands of galaxies and are the densest large-scale structures in the universe. Galaxy clusters consist of up to 85% dark matter, that could reveal its presence through self-annihilation and VHE gamma-ray emission. The observation of non-thermal diffuse radio emission in galaxy clusters suggests the presence of accelerated particles and high magnetic fields that can also produce VHE emission. Results from the VERTIAS observations of radio galaxies and galaxy clusters will be presented.