GCN Circular 22271

V. D'Elia (ASDC), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), B.
Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), A. Tohuvavohu (PSU),
S.L. Gibson (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U.
Leicester) and J.L. Racusin report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 8.1 ks of XRT data for GRB 171222A (Racusin et al. GCN
Circ. 22265
Not found
 
 
), from 176 s to 39.8 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 386 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode with the remainder in
Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was
given by Osborne et al. (GCN Circ. 22266
Not found
 
 
).

The light curve can be modelled with a series of power-law decays. The
initial decay index is alpha=2.05 (+0.39, -0.25). At T+285 s  the decay
steepens to an alpha of 4.51 (+0.43, -0.18). The light curve breaks
again at T+533 s to a decay with alpha=7.78 (+0.22, -1.07),  and  again
at T+712 s s to alpha=2.9 (+/-0.6),  before a final break at T+2103 s s
after which the decay index is 0.09 (+0.24, -0.27).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 2.28 (+/-0.04). The
best-fitting absorption column is  6.2 (+/-0.8) x 10^20 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 1.1 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 1.99 (+0.15, -0.12)
and a best-fitting absorption column consistent with the Galactic
value. The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion
factor deduced from this spectrum  is 3.2 x 10^-11 (3.3 x 10^-11) erg
cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     1.1 (+2.4, -0.0) x 10^20 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 1.1 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index:	     1.99 (+0.15, -0.12)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
0.09, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.021 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 6.7 x
10^-13 (7.0 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/00799669.

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