Skip to main content
Announcing GCN Classic Migration Survey, End of Legacy Circulars Email. See news and announcements

GCN Circular 22126

Subject
GRB 171115A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
Date
2017-11-16T02:36:25Z (7 years ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@leicester.ac.uk>
J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), P. D'Avanzo
(INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (ASDC), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), D.N. Burrows
(PSU), A. Tohuvavohu (PSU), S. J. LaPorte (PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U.
Leicester) and B. Sbarufatti report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 7.5 ks of XRT data for GRB 171115A (Sbarufatti et al.
GCN Circ. 22124), from 62 s to 18.4 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 35 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 6 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 Beardmore
et al. (GCN Circ. 22125).

The light curve can be modelled with an initial power-law decay with an
index of alpha=3.81 (+0.26, -0.23), followed by a break at T+289 s to
an alpha of 0.46 (+0.10, -0.11).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.92 (+0.33, -0.23). The
best-fitting absorption column is  3.3 (+1.7, -0.3) x 10^21 cm^-2,
consistent with the Galactic value of 3.0 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et
al. 2013). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux
conversion factor deduced from this spectrum  is 4.0 x 10^-11 (5.7 x
10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     3.3 (+1.7, -0.3) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 3.0 x 10^21 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index:	     1.92 (+0.33, -0.23)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
0.46, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 6.4 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 2.5 x
10^-13 (3.6 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/00790053.

This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
Looking for U.S. government information and services? Visit USA.gov