The Galactic Center Region Imaged by VERITAS from 2010-2012

TL;DR

This paper reports on three years of VERITAS observations of the galactic center at very-high energies, aiming to understand the gamma-ray emission sources and compare findings with existing astrophysical models.

Contribution

It provides new observational data from VERITAS at large zenith angles, enhancing understanding of the gamma-ray emission in the galactic center region.

Findings

Detection of gamma-ray emission consistent with previous observations.

Comparison of VERITAS data with astrophysical models.

Insights into potential sources of high-energy gamma rays.

Abstract

The galactic center (GC) has long been a region of interest for high-energy and very-high-energy observations. Many potential sources of GeV/TeV gamma-ray emission are located in the GC region, e.g. the accretion of matter onto the central black hole, cosmic rays from a nearby shell-type super nova remnant, or the annihilation of dark matter. The GC has been detected at MeV/GeV energies by EGRET and recently by Fermi/LAT. At TeV energies, the GC was detected at the level of 4 standard deviations with the Whipple 10m telescope and with one order of magnitude better sensitivity by H.E.S.S. and MAGIC. We present the results from 3 years of VERITAS GC observations conducted at large zenith angles. The results are compared to astrophysical models.