GCN Circular 18082

K.L. Page (U. Leicester), C. Pagani (U. Leicester), A. D'ai
(INAF-IASFPA), A. Maselli  (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), J.A.
Kennea (PSU), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), A.P.
Beardmore (U. Leicester) and S.B. Cenko report on behalf of the
Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 8.0 ks of XRT data for GRB 150727A (Cenko et al. GCN
Circ. 18076
Not found
 
 
), from 68 s to 32.5 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 523 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 8 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. 18079
Not found
 
 
).

The light curve can be modelled with a series of power-law decays. The
initial decay index is alpha=1.2 (+/-0.4). At T+93.8 s	the decay
steepens to an alpha of 2.72 (+0.11, -0.08). The light curve breaks
again at T+195 s to a decay with alpha=1.42 (+0.07, -0.06),  and  again
at T+3169 s s to alpha=8.0 (+0.0, -5.8),  before a final break at
T+4539 s s after which the decay index is 0.5 (+/-0.3).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 2.39 (+/-0.04). The
best-fitting absorption column is  2.0 (+/-1.5) x 10^20 cm^-2, at a
redshift of 0.313, in addition to the Galactic value of 9.8 x 10^20
cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The counts to observed (unabsorbed)
0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum  is 2.7 x
10^-11 (3.9 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the WT-mode spectrum is thus:
Galactic foreground: 9.8 x 10^20 cm^-2
Intrinsic column:    2.0 (+/-1.5) x 10^20 cm^-2 at z=0.313
Photon index:	     2.39 (+/-0.04)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
0.5, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 8.7 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 2.4 x
10^-13 (3.4 x 10^-13) erg cm^-2 s^-1.

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00650530.

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