GRB 081024B
GCN Circular 8513
Subject
GRB 081024B: Swift-XRT late-time observations
Date
2008-11-10T16:01:33Z (17 years ago)
From
Cristiano Guidorzi at INAF-OAB <cristiano.guidorzi@brera.inaf.it>
C. Guidorzi (INAF-OAB) on behalf of the Swift-XRT team reports:
Swift-XRT re-observed the field of the Fermi-LAT and Fermi-GBM
GRB 081024B (Omodei et al. GCN Circ. 8407; Connaughton et al GCN Circ. 8408)
from 13.1 to 15.1 days after the burst with a net exposure of 9.8 ks.
We compared this with our previous observations (Guidorzi et al. GCN Circ.
8410, 8416, 8454). We still detect source 2, identified in our first
observation (Guidorzi et al. GCN Circ. 8410), with a count rate of
(1.1 +- 0.4)e-3 count/s, which is compatible with a constant rate
source throughout the entire XRT observations.
We also derived an upper limit to the possible power-law decay
index of alpha<0.4 from ~1e5 to ~1.3e6 s (90% confidence).
We conclude that source 2, initially proposed as possibly associated
with GRB 081024B (Guidorzi et al. GCN Circ. 8416, 8454), is not the
corresponding X-ray afterglow.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 8456
Subject
GRB 081024B: BTA deep optical observations
Date
2008-11-01T10:35:39Z (17 years ago)
From
Vladimir Sokolov at SAO RAS <sokolov@sao.ru>
T. Fatkhullin, A. Moskvitin (SAO-RAS Niznij Arkhyz), A.J. Castro-Tirado
(IAA-CSIC Granada), on behalf of a larger collaboration, report:
"We observed the field of the short duration GRB081024B (Omodei, GCNC
8407; Connaughton and Briggs, GCNC 8408) in the Rc-band with the 6-m
telescope of the SAO RAS in Caucasus. In total two runs were performed
starting on 28 Oct 2008 (20:16 UT) and 29 Oct. 2008 (15:22 UT).
Integration times were 24 and 14 min respectively. Using SExtractor
software (Bertin & Arnouts 1996, A&AS 117, 393) and source "O1"
(Cenko & Kasliwal GCNC 8417; Kann et al. GCNC 8423) as a reference star,
we estimated the following magnitudes of the sources within the XRT error box:
28 Oct. 29 Oct.
O1: Rc = 20.55 +/- 0.04 Rc = 20.55 +/- 0.04 (from GCN 8423)
O2: Rc = 22.62 +/- 0.06 Rc = 22.65 +/- 0.06 (within 3.6 arcsec aperture)
O3: Rc = 23.19 +/- 0.15 Rc = 23.18 +/- 0.10 (within 3.6 arcsec aperture)
O4: Rc = 22.46 +/- 0.06 Rc = 22.53 +/- 0.06 (within 3.6 arcsec aperture)
The second epoch image (29 Oct.) shows that extended object "O2"
as noted from Palomar 200 inch Hale telescope observations (Cenko &
Kasliwal GCNC 8417) is most likely superposition of two objects.
These objects seem also to be extended in our image.
we conclude that all four sources showed no variability during the
time interval covered by our observations (including source "O2", whose
magnitude is comparable to the one reported by Cenko & Kasliwal).
As it is already mentioned by Guidorzi et al. (GCNC 8454) by means of
Swift/XRT observations, we can not confirm that the source "O2"
is fading in brightness, i.e. its relation to GRB081024B. This second
epoch image can be retrieved via anonymous FTP:
ftp://ftp.sao.ru/pub/grb/GRB081024B/GRB081024B_BTA_2nd_epoch.jpg ."
This message can be cited.
GCN Circular 8454
Subject
GRB 081024B: new Swift-XRT observations
Date
2008-10-31T19:06:29Z (17 years ago)
From
Cristiano Guidorzi at INAF-OAB <cristiano.guidorzi@brera.inaf.it>
C. Guidorzi, J. Mao, R. Margutti (INAF-OAB) on behalf
of the Swift-XRT team report:
Swift-XRT re-observed the field of the Fermi-LAT and Fermi-GBM
GRB 081024B (Omodei et al. GCN Circ. 8407; Connaughton et al GCN Circ. 8408)
from 2.75 to 6.1 days after the burst with a net exposure of 13 ks.
We combined this with our previous observation (Guidorzi et al. GCN Circ.
8416) for a resulting net exposure of 27 ks.
Source 2 identified in our earliest report (Guidorzi et al. GCN Circ. 8410)
as the only possibly fading source within the LAT error circle (GCN 8416)
and possibly associated with the variable optical object O2
(Cenko & Kasliwal GCN Circ. 8417; Kann et al. GCN Circ. 8423),
was finally detected with an average rate of (7.4 +- 2.2)e-4 counts/s
from 1.5 to 6.1 days. From the comparison with the first observation
(GCN 8410), in which the count rate was estimated to be (1.58 +- 0.54)e-3
counts/s, we estimate the probability of a constant rate source of 12%.
We also derived an upper limit to the possible power-law decay
index of alpha<0.8 from ~1 to ~5e5 s (90% confidence).
Therefore, at the moment we cannot confirm source 2 as the X-ray
afterglow candidate.
Further Swift-XRT observations are planned in order to clarify this issue.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 8451
Subject
GRB 081024B: VLA radio observation
Date
2008-10-29T21:01:56Z (17 years ago)
From
Poonam Chandra at U Virginia/NRAO <pc8s@virginia.edu>
P. Chandra (RMC), S. B. Cenko (Berkeley), D. A. Frail (NRAO) and
F. Harrison (Caltech) report on behalf of a larger GRB Collaboration:
"We used the Very Large Array to observe the Fermi-LAT detected
short hard burst GRB 081024B (GCN 8407) at a frequency of 8.46
GHz on 2008 Oct. 28.99 UT. The VLA field of view was centered at
RA: 21:31:37.63 Dec: +21:16:33.0 (J2000.0) for the observation.
We don't see any radio source in the VLA field of view. The map
rms is 38 uJy.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National
Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated
Universities, Inc."
GCN Circular 8444
Subject
GRB 081024B: Suzaku WAM observation of the prompt emission
Date
2008-10-29T09:50:05Z (17 years ago)
From
Yoshitaka Hanabata at Hiroshima U <hanabata@hep01.hepl.hiroshima-u.ac.jp>
Y. Hanabata, T. Uehara, T. Takahashi, Y. Fukazawa, C. Kira (Hiroshima U.),
T. Enoto, K. Nakazawa, K. Makishima (Univ. of Tokyo), S. Sugita,
K. Yamaoka (Aoyama Gakuin U.), M. Ohno, M. Kokubun, M. Suzuki,
T. Takahashi (ISAS/JAXA), Y.E. Nakagawa, T. Tamagawa (RIKEN),
M. Tashiro, Y. Terada, Y. Urata, A. Endo, K. Onda,
N. Kodaka, K. Morigami, T. Sugasahara, W. Iwakiri (Saitama U.),
E. Sonoda, M. Yamauchi, H. Tanaka, R. Hara, N. Ohmori (Univ. of Miyazaki),
S. Hong (Nihon U.), on behalf of the Suzaku WAM team, report:
The short/hard GRB081024B (Fermi-LAT detected ; Omodei GCN8407,
Fermi-GBM triggered ; Connaughton and Briggs, GCN 8408) triggered the
Suzaku Wide-band All-sky Monitor (WAM) which covers an energy range
of 50 keV - 5 MeV at 21:22:40.526 UT (=T0).
The observed light curve shows double-peaked structure with a duration
(T90) of about 0.4 second.
The fluence in 100 - 1000 keV was 2.7(+0.7, -1.0) X 10^-7 erg/cm^2.
The peak flux within 0.5 second was 1.1(+0.3, -0.5) photons/cm^2/s in
the same energy range.
Preliminary result shows that even at least 2 MeV photons have been
detected, and the time-averaged spectrum from T0 to T0+0.5s is well
fitted by a single power-law with a photon index of 1.24(+0.25, -0.19)
(chi^2/d.o.f = 12.3/14). All the quoted errors are at statistical 90%
confidence level, in which the systematic uncertainties are not included.
The light curves for this burst are availabel at:
http://www.astro.isas.jaxa.jp/suzaku/HXD-WAM/WAM-GRB/grb/trig/grb_table.html
GCN Circular 8423
Subject
Fermi LAT/GBM short-hard GRB 081024B: Possible TLS Afterglow (Corrected)
Date
2008-10-28T01:44:03Z (17 years ago)
From
Alexander Kann at TLS Tautenburg <kann@tls-tautenburg.de>
D. A. Kann, S. Schulze and C. Hoegner (TLS Tautenburg) report:
We observed the LAT error circle of the Fermi-LAT (Omodei, GCN 8407) and
Fermi-GBM (Connaughton and Briggs, GCN 8408) detected short/hard GRB
081024B with the TLS Tautenburg 1.34m Schmidt telescope in full frame mode
(field of view 42' x 42'), covering the complete error circle to about 2
sigma confidence level. We obtained 24 x 300 sec images in the Rc band
under good observing conditions, at mid-time 0.88644 days after the GRB.
We report the following analysis of the three XRT sources (Guidorzi et
al., GCN 8410), of which source 1 and 3 seem to remain constant (Guidorzi
& Margutti, GCN 8416), whereas source 2 may be fading and thus represent
the X-ray afterglow of GRB 081024B:
Source 1: We find a relatively bright stellar object which is clearly
visible in the DSS.
Source 3: We find a moderately faint stellar object which is under the DSS
limit.
Source 2: We detect all four objects reported by Cenko & Kasliwal (GCN
8417). Source O3 is close to the detection limit, implying that it is ~ Rc
> 23.5, similar to that of the P200 image.
We use several nearby, isolated USNOB1.0 stars to determine the image zero
point. We find that the zero point error is 0.04 magnitudes from four
stars, better than the pessimistic estimation (0.3 magnitudes) of Cenko &
Kasliwal (which also includes bandpass differences). Photometry was done
using a 7 pixel aperature (matched to the typical seeing) on sources O1
and O4 (which are reasonably isolated). For sources O2 (close to a bright
star) and O3 (close to O2), we used a 3 pixel aperature and used two
bright, isolated stars to compute the aperature correction (a factor of
2).
We derive the following magnitudes for the four sources (in brackets, we
give the magnitudes of Cenko & Kasliwal):
O1 (bright, stellar): Rc = 20.55 +/- 0.04 (20.6)
O2 (extended in P200): Rc = 22.25 +/- 0.10 (22.6)
O3 (faint): Rc = 23.48 +/- 0.34 (23.4)
O4 (faint, stellar): Rc = 22.53 +/- 0.16 (22.6)
All sources except O2 agree well with the P200 magnitudes obtained 0.36
days later, to within +/- 0.08 magnitudes despite the multiple differences
(comparison stars, bandpass, etc.). Only source O2 is brighter, by ~ 0.35
magnitudes. While the source is close to a bright (~ magnitude of O1)
star, which may contaminate the photometry even in the reduced aperature,
O2 is clearly brighter in our image than O4, whereas they have identical
magnitudes (as reported by Cenko & Kasliwal) in the P200 images. Since
Cenko & Kasliwal report this source to be extended, this may indicate that
we are seeing the optical afterglow as well as the underlying host galaxy
of GRB 081024B. Still, caution is advised.
This GRB is of special interest. It is the first Fermi-detected short/hard
GRB reported so far, and possibly the first one with a detection at >> 1
GeV (the very bright GRB 930131, the "Superbowl Burst", was only detected
to ~ 1 GeV by CGRO EGRET, Sommer et al. 1994, ApJL, 422, L63), and,
similar to GRB 930131 and also the AGILE-Grid-detected long GRB 080514B
(Guiliani et al. 2008, A&A, in press), emission is seen for several
seconds longer than at lower energies. Therefore, additional deep
follow-up and spectroscopy of extended source O2 is highly encouraged.
Further observations at TLS are planned (to perform image subtraction) in
case we ever see the stars again.
We are indebted to Antonio de Ugarte Postigo for pointing out the
suspicious lack of authors in the first version.
This message may be cited.
GCN Circular 8422
Subject
Fermi LAT/GBM short-hard GRB 081024B: Possible TLS Afterglow
Date
2008-10-28T01:22:45Z (17 years ago)
From
Alexander Kann at TLS Tautenburg <kann@tls-tautenburg.de>