GCN Circular 35350

J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), M. Perri (SSDC &
INAF-OAR), V. D'Elia (SSDC & INAF-OAR), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB), A.
Tohuvavohu (U. Toronto), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J. D. Gropp (PSU), A.P.
Beardmore (U. Leicester) and P.A. Evans report on behalf of the
Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 6.2 ks of XRT data for GRB 231214A, from 407 s to 45.5
ks after the  BAT trigger. The data are entirely in Photon Counting
(PC) mode. 

The light curve can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay
index of alpha=1.48 (+/-0.08).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.4 (+/-0.4). The
best-fitting absorption column is  1.2 (+0.4, -0.3) x 10^22 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 5.5 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion
factor deduced from this spectrum  is 4.2 x 10^-11 (1.2 x 10^-10) erg
cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     1.2 (+0.4, -0.3) x 10^22 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 5.5 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: 5.4 sigma
Photon index:	     2.4 (+/-0.4)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.48, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 1.6 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 6.9 x
10^-14 (1.9 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/01202386.

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