GCN Circular 42797
Subject
LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA S251105aj: SVOM/ECLAIRs detection of a high-energy transient SVOM J2320.0-2901 through targeted search
Date
2025-11-22T10:00:14Z (2 days ago)
Edited On
2025-11-22T21:08:52Z (2 days ago)
From
SVOM_group <svomgroup@bao.ac.cn>
Edited By
Vidushi Sharma at NASA GSFC/UMBC <vidushi.sharma@nasa.gov> on behalf of SVOM_group <svomgroup@bao.ac.cn>
Via
Web form
H. Yang, O. Godet, J.-L. Atteia, M. Brunet, S. Guillot (IRAP), M. Pillas (IAP), L. P. Xin, Y. N. Ma (NAOC)
Using the event-by-event data downloaded through the X-band ground stations, we report on the identification of a faint SVOM/ECLAIRs transient SVOM J2320.0-2901 detected at 2025-11-05T13:00:48.34 UTC (T0), 88.4 s after the compact binary merger candidate S251105aj (The LIGO-Virgo-Kagra Collaboration, GCN 42587). This transient was detected through an offline targeted search for possible counterparts of the GW event S251105aj.
SVOM J2320.0-2901 was detected with a timescale of 82 s and below 60 keV, with a best signal-to-noise ratio of 6.1 starting at T0.
The localization of SVOM J2320.0-2901 is RA, Dec = 349.998, -29.022 degrees:
RA (J2000) = 23h20m00s
Dec (J2000) = -29d01m19s
with a 90% C.L. radius of 13.9 arcmin (including a systematic error of 6 arcmin added in quadrature). This position is about 2 degrees outside the 99% area contour of the Bilby.multiorder.fits skymap of S251105aj. At the time of the GW trigger, ECLAIRs was covering 88% of the skymap 99% area.
The time-averaged spectrum from T0 to T0+82 s in the energy range of 5-60 keV is well fitted by a blackbody (BB) model, with a measured temperature of 7.8 (+1.5/-1.2) keV. With this model, the total 4-120 keV flux is (3.6+/-0.8)e-9 erg/cm^2/s. Assuming a distance of 2071 Mpc (z=0.374) for the source, this corresponds to a luminosity of 1.8e48 erg/s and a BB emission radius of 1.9e6 cm.
A broken power-law model is also tested, providing a comparable fit, though with less well-constrained parameters of photon index 1 around -0.5, break energy of 22 (+21/-10) keV, and photon index 2 around 2.9.
At this stage, the nature of SVOM J2320.0-2901 is unknown.
We conducted SVOM/VT and EP/FXT follow-up observations on this field. The results will be published in dedicated circulars.
All the quoted errors are at the 68% confidence level.
The Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) is a China-France joint mission led by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), French Space Agency (CNES), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which is dedicated to observing gamma-ray bursts and other transient phenomena in the energetic universe. ECLAIRs was developed jointly by CNES, CEA-IRFU, CNRS-IRAP, CNRS-APC.
The SVOM/ECLAIRs point of contact for this source is: Hui Yang (IRAP) (hui.yang@irap.omp.eu).