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GCN Circular 23645

Subject
GRB 190109A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
Date
2019-01-09T11:25:39Z (6 years ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@leicester.ac.uk>
A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), A. D'Ai
(INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), A.
Tohuvavohu (PSU), S. J. LaPorte (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), J.P. Osborne
(U. Leicester) and J.D. Gropp report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 6.1 ks of XRT data for GRB 190109A (Gropp et al. GCN
Circ. 23642), from 175 s to 13.0 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 291 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. 23643).

The late-time light curve (from T0+4.8 ks) can be modelled with a
power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=0.8 (+/-0.3).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 1.87 (+/-0.04). The
best-fitting absorption column is  9.5 (+1.3, -1.2) x 10^20 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 5.1 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 1.88 (+0.11, -0.09)
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 3.5 x 10^-11 (3.8 x 10^-11) erg
cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     5.1 (+2.1, -0.0) x 10^20 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 5.1 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index:	     1.88 (+0.11, -0.09)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
0.8, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.010 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 3.6 x
10^-13 (4.0 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/00882747.

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