DETECTION OF VERY HIGH ENERGY RADIATION FROM THE BL LACERTAE OBJECT PG 1553 113 WITH THE MAGIC TELESCOPE

In 2005 and 2006, the MAGIC telescope observed very high energy gamma-ray emission from the distant BL Lac object PG 1553 + 113. The overall significance of the signal was 8.8 sigma for 18.8 hr of observation time. The light curve shows no significant flux variations on a daily timescale; the flux level during 2005 was, however, significantly higher compared to 2006. The differential energy spectrum between similar to 90 and 500 GeV is well described by a power law with photon index. Gamma = 4.2 +/- 0.3. The combined 2005 and 2006 energy spectrum provides an upper limit of z = 0.74 on the redshift of the object.