GCN Circular 23374

A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), A. Tohuvavohu (PSU), S.
J. LaPorte (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.P.
Osborne (U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), V. D'Elia (ASDC) and
F.E. Marshall report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 2.0 ks of XRT data for GRB 181022A (Marshall et al.
GCN Circ. 23364
Loading...
 
 ), from 106 s to 5.4 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
are entirely in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The best available XRT
position  (using the promptly downlinked event data, the XRT-UVOT
alignment and matching UVOT field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue) is
RA, Dec = 56.7920, -29.3798 which is equivalent to:

RA (J2000): 03 47 10.09
Dec(J2000): -29 22 47.2

with an uncertainty of 2.1 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence).

The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay
index of alpha=1.73 (+/-0.24).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.7 (+/-0.5). The
best-fitting absorption column is  2.9 (+2.9, -1.9) x 10^21 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 8.8 x 10^19 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion
factor deduced from this spectrum  is 4.4 x 10^-11 (5.7 x 10^-11) erg
cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     2.9 (+2.9, -1.9) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 8.8 x 10^19 cm^-2
Excess significance: 2.5 sigma
Photon index:	     1.7 (+/-0.5)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.73, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 1.2 x 10^-5 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 5.4 x
10^-16 (7.1 x 10^-16) erg cm^-2 s^-1.

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00868312.

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