GCN Circular 20198

V. D'Elia (ASDC), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), T.G.R.
Roegiers (PSU), L.M. McCauley (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), B. Mingo (U.
Leicester), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester) and E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/UMCP)
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 5.9 ks of XRT data for GRB 161117B (Troja et al. GCN
Circ. 20182
Not found
 
 
), from 65 s to 206.7 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 178 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 7 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. 20186
Not found
 
 
).

The light curve shows an initial bright flare that is part of 
the prompt GRB emission. At T+95.1 s the decay can be modelled with 
a power-law of index alpha of 0.43 (+0.09, -0.07) before breaking at
T+101 ks to a final decay with index alpha=6.7 (+1.3, -5.2).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 1.10 (+/-0.05). The
best-fitting absorption column is  3.8 (+/-0.4) x 10^21 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 6.5 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 1.98 (+0.24, -0.23)
and a best-fitting absorption column of 5.3 (+1.5, -1.3) x 10^21 cm^-2.
The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor
deduced from this spectrum  is 4.2 x 10^-11 (6.8 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2
count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     5.3 (+1.5, -1.3) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 6.5 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: 5.9 sigma
Photon index:	     1.98 (+0.24, -0.23)

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00722642.

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