GRB 070125
GCN Circular 6186
Subject
GRB 070125: Chandra X-ray Confirmation of Jet Break
Date
2007-03-09T21:18:41Z (19 years ago)
From
S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech <cenko@srl.caltech.edu>
S. B. Cenko, A. M. Soderberg (Caltech), D. A. Frail (NRAO), and D. B. Fox
(Penn State) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
The Chandra X-ray Observatory + ACIS observed the field of GRB070125
(Hurley et al, GCN 6024) beginning 5 March 2007 21:28 UT for a 30 ks
exposure (mean epoch ~ 39.76 days after the burst). No source is detected
at the location of the optical afterglow (Cenko & Fox, GCN 6028).
Formally, using a circular aperture with 1" diameter, we detect 0.9 +/-
5.0 photons from 0.3-10 keV. Using spectral properties derived from early
XRT observations (Gamma=2.0, nH=8e20; Racusin and Vetere, GCN 6030),
we estimate an upper limit on the afterglow flux of < 2e-15 erg cm^-2
s^-1.
Had the X-ray flux seen by the Swift XRT (Burrows & Racusin, GCN 6181)
continued to decay as a single power-law with index ~ -1.5, we would
expect a flux ~ 5e-15 erg cm^-2 s^-1 at the Chandra epoch (~ 20 Chandra
ACIS-S photons), more than a factor of 2 above this upper limit. We
therefore conclude the X-ray decay has steepened since the last XRT
detection, confirming the jet break seen in the optical light curve
(Mirabal, Halpern, & Thorstensen, GCN 6096; Garnavich et al., GCN 6165).
A plot of the X-ray light curve can be found at:
http://www.srl.caltech.edu/~cenko/public/grb070125_xray.jpg
We would like to thank the entire Chandra X-ray Center staff for their
execution of this observation and the rapid processing of the data.
GCN Circular 6181
Subject
GRB 070125: X-ray light curve analysis
Date
2007-03-08T21:34:34Z (19 years ago)
From
David Burrows at PSU/Swift <dnburrows@gmail.com>
D. N. Burrows and J. Racusin report on behalf of the Swift XRT team:
Garnavich et al. (GCN Circ. 6165) have suggested that the X-ray light
curve of GRB 070125 has a late break to a steep slope, in agreement
with the optical break reported by Mirabel, Halpern & Thorstensen
(GCN 6096) and confirmed by their observations.
We have re-examined the XRT light curve, which extends from ~44 ks to
~1.5 Ms post-burst, and reconfirm our original conclusions. Full
details, including a plot of the X-ray light curve showing several
possible fits of single and broken power laws, are given in GCN
Report 28.3 (http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/reports/report_28_3.pdf). We find:
1) the X-ray light curve is best fit by a broken power law, but with
a break time at 1.35 +/- 0.35 days (90% confidence), not > 4 days as
required by the optical data (Mirabel, Halpern & Thorstensen, GCN
6096). However, this fit, with reduced chi**2=1.6 for 15 degrees of
freedom, is rather poor (P=0.065), due primarily to large residuals
between 100 and 200 ks.
2) a better fit can be obtained under the assumption that there is a
small X-ray flare at about 110 ks. If these data points are
excluded, the remaining X-ray data can be fit by a single power law
of slope 1.57 +/- 0.07 (90% confidence) with reduced chi**2 of 0.82
for 14 degrees of freedom. A broken power law fit to this data set
is slightly worse and has very poor constraints on the fit parameters.
We conclude that we cannot distinguish between a single power law fit
with a small flare at 110 ks, and a broken power law fit with
additional flaring (to account for the poor residuals). Therefore
the X-ray data do not show evidence for a jet break: they are
consistent with a jet break coincident with the optical break, but
are equally consistent with no break at all.
GCN Circular 6165
Subject
GRB 070125, deep late-time optical observation
Date
2007-03-01T22:47:13Z (19 years ago)
From
Peter Garnavich at U of Notre Dame <pgarnavi@nd.edu>
P. Garnavich (Notre Dame), X. Fan, L. Jiang (U Ariz), X. Dai (Ohio State),
O. Kuhn (LBTO), N. Bouche, P. Buschkamp (MPE), P. Smith,
P. Milne, J. Bechtold (U Ariz), K. Z. Stanek, J. Prieto (Ohio State),
R. M. Wagner (LBTO/OSU), J. Rhoads (Ariz State), J. Hill (LBTO/UAz),
A. Baruffolo, C. DeSantis, E. Diolaiti, A. DiPaola, J. Farinato,
A. Fontana, S. Gallozzi, F. Gasparo, E. Giallongo, A. Grazian,
F. Pasian, F. Pedichini, R. Ragazzoni, R. Smareglia, R. Speziali,
V. Testa, E. Vernet (LBC Team/INAF) reprt:
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) imaged the position of the GRB 070125
afterglow (Cenko & Fox, GCN 6028) with the LBC-blue CCD camera
(http//lbc.mporzio.astro.it) and 8.4-m SX mirror on 2007 February 21.1 (UT).
Ten dithered, 200 second exposures were obtained with the Sloan r filter
in 1.3" seeing. After combining the images a faint source is detected at
the position of the afterglow. Using SDSS stars in the field and
1.4" apertures, we estimate the brightness of the source
at r=26.3+/-0.3 mag. Since the source may be dominated by the host galaxy,
this observation represents a lower-limit on the magnitude of the
afterglow 26.8 days after the GRB.
The last reported detection of the GRB afterglow was R=21.07 at 4.04 days
(Mirabal, Halpern & Thorstensen, GCN 6096) and it was decaying with an
index of 1.6. Converting our observation to Johnson-Cousins R-band
(assuming beta=-1.0 so B-V=0.34) we find that after the light curve break
the power-law decay index was equal to, or greater than 2.5.
This confirms the sharp steepening in the light curve four days after the
GRB and the jet opening angle reported by Mirabal et al. (GCN 6096). We
expect that a supernova at z=1.5 and similar to SN 1998bw (Galama et al.
1998, Nature, 395, 670) would have r~28 mag at the time of our observation
so would not contribute significantly to the observed flux.
The LBT image is available at:
http://www.nd.edu/~pgarnavi/grb070125/LBT_070221.jpg
The X-ray light curve is generally consistent with the optical. Both show
a break at late time and a steep decay. The x-ray light curve actually has
a strong detection at an age of 10 days suggesting a steeper post-break
decay and possibly a wider opening angle than the optical limits.
It has been suggested that the existence of jet breaks in Swift x-ray
light curves are rare (e.g. Burrows & Racusin 2007, astro-ph/0702633),
but here is a good example occurring at a time later than expected. This
suggests the lack of Swift jet breaks is a selection effect and that many
occur beyond the Swift sensitivity limit.
The X-ray/optical light curve comparison is available at:
http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~xinyu/grb/070125.jpg
The LBT is an international collaboration between institutions in the
U.S.A., Italy and Germany. LBT Corporation partners are The Universities
of Arizona; Italy's Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica; Germany's LBT
Beteiligungsgesellschaft representing the Max-Planck Society, the
Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, and Heidelberg University; The Ohio State
University and The Research Corporation, which provides access to The
University of Notre Dame, University of Minnesota and University of
Virginia.
This message may be cited.
GCN Circular 6102
Subject
GRB 070125 observations with the GMRT
Date
2007-02-13T20:59:37Z (19 years ago)
From
Poonam Chandra at U Virginia/NRAO <pc8s@virginia.edu>
Poonam Chandra (NRAO/UVA), Ishwara Chandra (NCRA, Pune) and Neeraj Gupta
(NCRA, Pune) report:
"We used the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to observe the field
of view
toward GRB 070125 (GCN 6028) at a frequency of 610 MHz on 2007 January
30th.
We put the 2-sigma upper limit of 300 uJy on the GRB flux density.
We thank the staff of the GMRT who made these observations possible. The
GMRT is run
by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research."
GCN Circular 6096
Subject
GRB 070125: Break in Optical Decay
Date
2007-02-11T00:07:21Z (19 years ago)
From
Jules Halpern at Columbia U. <jules@astro.columbia.edu>
N. Mirabal, J. Halpern (Columbia U.), & J. R. Thorstensen (Dartmouth)
report on behalf of the MDM Observatory GRB follow-up team:
"We obtained several observations of the afterglow of GRB 070125
(Cenko & Fox, GCN 6028) between 2 and 12 days after the burst using the
MDM 2.4m and 1.3m telescopes. Results in the R-band are summarized as
follows:
---------------------------------------
Date(UT) t-t0(days) R(mag) +/-
---------------------------------------
Jan 27.270 1.964 19.71 0.02
Jan 28.299 2.993 20.44 0.03
Jan 29.346 4.040 21.07 0.07
Feb 6.307 12.001 >23.8
---------------------------------------
Calibration was performed with Landolt standard stars. In addition, we
compiled
data from the GCN circulars, and placed them on a common scale using their
stated
calibrators. MDM images and the compiled R-band light curve are shown at:
http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~jules/grb/070125/
The light curve shows an apparent plateau or rise at about 1 day. Between 1
and 4 days, it is well described by a power law of slope -1.6. Our upper
limit
at 12 days implies that a break occurred after 4 days, and that the slope
became steeper than -2.2. At redshift z=1.55 (Fox et al., GCN 6071) and
fluence 1.5x10^-4 erg cm^-2 (Bellm et al., GCN 6025), the assumed isotropic
energy is 9x10^53 erg. If we treat 4 days as a lower limit on the time
of any "jet break", then the jet opening angle is of order 6 degrees or
greater, and the beamed energy is 6x10^51 erg or greater.
This message may be cited."
GCN Circular 6073
Subject
GRB 070125 detection with CARMA
Date
2007-02-07T11:51:50Z (19 years ago)
From
Poonam Chandra at U Virginia/NRAO <pc8s@virginia.edu>
P. Chandra (UVA/NRAO), D. Bock (OVRO), A. M. Soderberg (Caltech),
D. A. Frail (NRAO) and S. R. Kulkarni (Caltech) report on behalf
of a larger collaboration::
"We observed the field of view of GRB 070125 (GCN 6024) with Combined
Association for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) telescope
in 3mm band (95 GHz) at the mean observation time of 2007 Feb 5, 0700 UT.
We detect the GRB at the P-60 optical afterglow position (GCN# 6028).
The flux density of the GRB is 2.2+/-0.7 mJy.
We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff of CARMA."
GCN Circular 6071
Subject
GRB 070125: Redshift z>~1.54 from Gemini Afterglow Spectrum
Date
2007-02-03T21:13:05Z (19 years ago)
From
Derek Fox at PSU <dfox@astro.psu.edu>