The high-frequency-peaked BL Lacertae object 1ES 0229+200 is a relatively distant ( z = 0.1396 ) , hard-spectrum ( \Gamma \sim 2.5 ) , very-high-energy-emitting ( E > 100 GeV ) \gamma -ray blazar .
Very-high-energy measurements of this active galactic nucleus have been used to place constraints on the intensity of the extragalactic background light and the intergalactic magnetic field .
A multi-wavelength study of this object centered around very-high-energy observations by VERITAS is presented .
This study obtained , over a period of three years , an 11.7 standard deviation detection and an average integral flux F ( E > 300 ~ { } { GeV } ) = ( 23.3 \pm 2.8 _ { stat } \pm 5.8 _ { sys } ) \times 10 ^ { -9 } photons m ^ { -2 } s ^ { -1 } , or 1.7 % of the Crab Nebula ’ s flux ( assuming the Crab Nebula spectrum measured by H.E.S.S ) .
Supporting observations from Swift and RXTE are analyzed .
The Swift observations are combined with previously published Fermi observations and the very-high-energy measurements to produce an overall spectral energy distribution which is then modeled assuming one-zone synchrotron-self-Compton emission .
The \chi ^ { 2 } probability of the TeV flux being constant is 1.6 % .
This , when considered in combination with measured variability in the X-ray band , and the demonstrated variability of many TeV blazars , suggests that the use of blazars such as 1ES 0229+200 for intergalactic magnetic field studies may not be straightforward and challenges models that attribute hard TeV spectra to secondary \gamma -ray production along the line of sight .