GCN Circular 41152
Subject
GRB 250725A: Swift detection of a burst
Event
Date
2025-07-25T02:16:19Z (a month ago)
From
K.L. Page at U Leicester <klp5@leicester.ac.uk>
Via
email
P. A. Evans (U Leicester), N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL),
K. L. Page (U Leicester) and D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of
the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team:
At 01:51:36 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 250725A (trigger=1336720). Swift slewed to the burst after
a short delay due to an observing constraint.
The BAT on-board calculated location is
RA, Dec 35.385, -82.784 which is
RA(J2000) = 02h 21m 32s
Dec(J2000) = -82d 47' 02"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including
systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a complex
structure with a duration of about 20 sec. The peak count rate
was ~8700 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger.
The XRT began observing the field at 02:03:56.8 UT, 740.4 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued
X-ray source located at RA, Dec 35.47808, -82.79131 which is equivalent
to:
RA(J2000) = 02h 21m 54.74s
Dec(J2000) = -82d 47' 28.7"
with an uncertainty of 3.5 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 49 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT
error circle. This position may be improved as more data are received;
the latest position is available at https://www.swift.ac.uk/sper.
A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event
data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (9.21 x
10^20 cm^-2, Willingale et al. 2013), with an excess column of 3.9
(+2.24/-1.95) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence).
UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 879 seconds after the BAT trigger. No credible afterglow candidate has
been found in the initial data products. The 2.7'x2.7' sub-image covers 100% of
the XRT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag.
The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the
XRT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No
correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of
0.115.
Burst Advocate for this burst is P. A. Evans (pae9 AT leicester.ac.uk).
Please contact the BA by email if you require additional information
regarding Swift followup of this burst. In extremely urgent cases, after
trying the Burst Advocate, you can contact the Swift PI by phone (see
Swift TOO web site for information: http://www.swift.psu.edu/)