Very-high energy observations of the Galactic center region by VERITAS
  in 2010-2012
  The Galactic center is an interesting region for high-energy (0.1-100 GeV)
and very-high-energy (E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray observations. Potential sources of
GeV/TeV gamma-ray emission have been suggested, e.g., the accretion of matter
onto the supermassive black hole, cosmic rays from a nearby supernova remnant
(e.g. SgrA East), particle acceleration in a plerion, or the annihilation of
dark matter particles. The Galactic center has been detected by EGRET and by
Fermi/LAT in the MeV/GeV energy band. At TeV energies, the Galactic center was
detected with moderate significance by the CANGAROO and Whipple 10 m telescopes
and with high significance by H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS. We present the
results from three years of VERITAS observations conducted at large zenith
angles resulting in a detection of the Galactic center on the level of 18
standard deviations at energies above ~2.5TeV. The energy spectrum is derived
and is found to be compatible with hadronic, leptonic and hybrid emission
models discussed in the literature. Future, more detailed measurements of the
high-energy cutoff and better constraints on the high-energy flux variability
will help to refine and/or disentangle the individual models.
