GCN Circular 40906
Subject
EP250702a : an X-ray transient detected by Einstein Probe likely associated with GRB 250702B,C,D,E
Event
Date
2025-07-03T04:20:00Z (a month ago)
From
EP Team at NAOC/CAS <ep_ta@bao.ac.cn>
Via
Web form
H. Q. Cheng (NAO, CAS), G. Y. Zhao (SYSU), C. Zhou (HUST), Y. H. Cheng (SWIFAR, YNU), Y. J. Zhang (THU), J. W. Hu, H. Sun and Z. X. Ling (NAO, CAS) on behalf of the Einstein Probe (EP) team:
We report on the detection of an X-ray transient by the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) on board the Einstein Probe (EP) mission, designated EP250702a. The source was first detected in an observation starting at 2025-07-02T02:53:44 (UTC), and was continuously detected in subsequent observations spanning from 2025-07-02T05:57:06 to 2025-07-02T22:32:44. The WXT position of the source is R.A. = 284.700 deg, DEC = -7.869 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 2.4 arcmin in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic). The source reached a peak flux in the observation starting at 2025-07-02T16:10:11 with an exposure of 827s, the epoch of which is generally consistent with the burst time of GRB 250702E (GCN 40890). Considering that EP250702a is spatially and temporally coincident with the GRB 250702B,C,D,E detected by Fermi /GBM (GCN 40883, 40885, 40886, 40890, 40891), we suggest that EP250702a is likely the X-ray source associated with GRB 250702B,C,D,E. The WXT position is also consistent with the source localization skymap provided by the Swift/BAT-GUANO (GCN 40903).
Stacking of the WXT data taken prior to the WXT detection indicated that the source has already emerged on July 1st, 2025. The WXT spectrum of the peak flux epoch can be fitted with an absorbed power-law model (with the column density fixed at the Galactic absorption value of 5e21 cm^-2), yielding a photon index of 0.2+/-0.1 and an unabsorbed 0.5-4 keV flux of (5.5+/-0.7)e-10 ergs/s/cm^2.
A follow-up observation with the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) onboard EP was performed but the telemetry data is still not available yet. The FXT onboard source detection algorithm gives an improved source position at R.A. = 284.6911 deg, DEC = -7.8715 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 20 arcsecond in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic). More information will be updated when the telemetry data is received.
Launched on January 9, 2024, EP is a space X-ray observatory to monitor the soft X-ray sky with X-ray follow-up capability (Yuan et al. 2022, Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics)