Physics Graduate Student Seminar with Pazit Rabinowitz on Gamma-ray observations of blazars with VERITAS (AKA: why I hate the moon)

High-frequency-peaked BL Lac blazars (HBLs), a subset of active galactic nuclei, are the most common extragalactic source at the highest gamma-ray energies. Over the past few years, the VERITAS observatory has studied 36 HBLs in order to conduct the first unbiased survey of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission from HBLs. The project aims to find unbiased estimates of the VHE flux of these sources, which are often reported only in flaring states, as well as eventually lead to the derivation of a luminosity function for HBLs. In this talk I will present background information on blazars and VHE gamma-ray observation techniques with VERITAS, as well as results from the unbiased HBL survey and implications for understanding blazar properties.