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GCN Circular 29495

Subject
GRB 210212A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
Date
2021-02-12T16:18:16Z (3 years ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@leicester.ac.uk>
A. Tohuvavohu (U. Toronto), B. Sbarufatti (PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU),
K.L. Page (U. Leicester), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), P.A. Evans (U.
Leicester), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), T. Sbarrato (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo
(INAF-OAB) and E. Troja report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 6.8 ks of XRT data for GRB 210212A (Troja et al. GCN
Circ. 29487), from 109 s to 34.2 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 337 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode with the remainder in
Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was
given by Beardmore et al. (GCN Circ. 29489).

The light curve can be modelled with an initial power-law decay with an
index of alpha=2.27 (+0.28, -0.50), followed by a break at T+194 s to
an alpha of 3.79 (+0.28, -0.23).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 1.55 (+0.13, -0.12). The
best-fitting absorption column is  1.6 (+0.6, -0.4) x 10^21 cm^-2,
consistent with the Galactic value of 1.1 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 4.4 x 10^-11 (5.0 x
10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the WT-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     1.6 (+0.6, -0.4) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 1.1 x 10^21 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index:	     1.55 (+0.13, -0.12)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
3.79, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 5.3 x 10^-10 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 2.3 x
10^-20 (2.6 x 10^-20) erg cm^-2 s^-1.

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/01032183.

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