The high-energy gamma-ray spectra of TeV blazars

Blazars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei with relativistic jets pointed toward the observer, emitting non-thermal, high-energy gamma rays that can exceed 1 TeV. The underlying mechanism for the emission of these gamma rays is evident in the observed spectral energy distribution (SED), which is modeled to include the underlying particle populations, and acceleration and cooling mechanisms in the jets. The Fermi-LAT is a space-based telescope sensitive to gamma rays with energies from 50 MeV to 1 TeV and VERITAS is a ground-based observatory that detects VHE gamma rays from 85 GeV to 30 TeV. We use data from the Fermi-LAT and VERITAS to study a sample of TeV blazars, exploiting more than ten years of data from both instruments to construct a rich population of the flux distributions. Temporal and spectral analyses were conducted on a sample of eight high-frequency-peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs), a subclass of blazars that have their synchrotron peak at frequencies between 10¹⁵ Hz and 10¹⁷ Hz. We used Bayesian blocks to define periods with steady flux and accounted for the absorption effect from the extragalactic background light (EBL). We report on the distribution of spectral fluxes, particularly focusing on the properties of the spectral cutoff in the SED through various flux states.