GCN Circular 18016

M.G. Bernardini, A. Melandri, P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) and P.A. Evans
(Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 6.9 ks of XRT data for GRB 150711A (Bernardini et al.
GCN Circ. 18011
Not found
 
 
), from 96 s to 28.3 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 115 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 9 s were taken
while Swift was slewing) with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC)
mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Osborne et
al. (GCN Circ. 18012
Not found
 
 
).

The light curve can be modelled with an initial power-law decay with an
index of alpha=2.90 (+0.17, -0.13), followed by a break at T+446 s to
an alpha of 0.62 (+0.07, -0.06). Flaring activity is observed between
T+150 s and T+225 s.

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 2.71 (+/-0.14). The
best-fitting absorption column is  4.2 (+/-0.5) x 10^21 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 8.2 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 2.20 (+0.19, -0.18)
and a best-fitting absorption column of 4.2 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2.
The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor
deduced from this spectrum  is 3.5 x 10^-11 (6.3 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2
count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     4.2 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 8.2 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: 6.8 sigma
Photon index:	     2.20 (+0.19, -0.18)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
0.62, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.022 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 7.8 x
10^-13 (1.4 x 10^-12) erg cm^-2 s^-1.

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00648601.

This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.

[GCN OPS NOTE(12jul15): Per MGB's request, AM, PDA, and PAE
were added to the author list.]