GCN Circular 18986

J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), V. D'Elia
(ASDC), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), T.G.R. Roegiers (PSU), L.M. McCauley
(PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), C. Pagani (U. Leicester) and P. D'Avanzo
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 10 ks of XRT data for GRB 160203A (D'Avanzo et al. GCN
Circ. 18979
Not found
 
 
), from 122 s to 33.8 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 7 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (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.
18983
Not found
 
 
).

The late-time light curve (from T0+4.9 ks) can be modelled with a
power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.15 (+0.24, -0.23).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.76 (+0.23, -0.22). The
best-fitting absorption column is  1.5 (+2.6, -1.5) x 10^22 cm^-2, at a
redshift of 3.52, in addition to the Galactic value of 7.4 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 3.8 x
10^-11 (4.5 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Galactic foreground: 7.4 x 10^20 cm^-2
Intrinsic column:    1.5 (+2.6, -1.5) x 10^22 cm^-2 at z=3.52
Photon index:	     1.76 (+0.23, -0.22)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.15, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 2.8 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.1 x
10^-13 (1.2 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/00672525.

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