Detection of TeV gamma-rays from the BL Lac 1ES 1959+650 in its low states and during a major outburst in 2002

TeV gamma-rays from the BL Lac object 1ES 1959+650 have been measured during the years 2000 and 2001 with a significance of 5.2 sigma at a value of 5.3% of the Crab flux and in May 2002 during strong outbursts with >23 sigma at a flux level of up to 2.2 Crab, making 1ES 1959+650 the TeV Blazar with the third best event statistics. The deep observation of 197.4 h has been performed with the HEGRA stereoscopic system of 5 imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes (IACT system). 1ES 1959+650 is located at a redshift of z = 0.047, providing an intermediate distance between the nearby Blazars Mkn 421 and Mkn 501, and the much more distant object H1426+428. This makes 1ES 1959+650 an important member of the class of TeV Blazars in view of the absorption of TeV photons by the diffuse extragalactic background radiation (DEBRA). The differential energy spectrum of 1ES 1959+650 during the flares can be fitted by a power law with a spectral index of 2.83 +/- 0.14(stat) +/- 0.08(sys) or by a power law with an exponential cut-off at (4.2(-0.6 stat)(+0.8) +/- 0.9(sys)) TeV and a spectral index of 1.83 +/- 0.15(stat) +/- 0.08(sys). The low state differential energy spectrum obtained with lower statistics can be described by a pure power law with a spectral index of 3.18 +/- 0.17(stat) +/- 0.08(sys).