  Prompt emission from the very fluent and nearby (z=0.34) gamma-ray burst GRB
130427A was detected by several orbiting telescopes and by ground-based,
wide-field-of-view optical transient monitors. Apart from the intensity and
proximity of this GRB, it is exceptional due to the extremely long-lived
high-energy (100 MeV to 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission, which was detected by the
Large Area Telescope on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope for ~70 ks after
the initial burst. The persistent, hard-spectrum, high-energy emission suggests
that the highest-energy gamma rays may have been produced via synchrotron
self-Compton processes though there is also evidence that the high-energy
emission may instead be an extension of the synchrotron spectrum. VERITAS, a
ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope array, began follow-up
observations of GRB 130427A ~71 ks (~20 hr) after the onset of the burst. The
GRB was not detected with VERITAS; however, the high elevation of the
observations, coupled with the low redshift of the GRB, make VERITAS a very
sensitive probe of the emission from GRB 130427A for E > 100 GeV. The
non-detection and consequent upper limit derived place constraints on the
synchrotron self-Compton model of high-energy gamma-ray emission from this
burst.
