GRB 111029A

J. Wren,  W. T. Vestrand, P. Wozniak, and H. Davis
of Los Alamos National Laboratory report:

The RAPTOR wide-field optical monitors made observations of Swift trigger 506519 (Troja et al., GCN 12498
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 ) during the gamma-ray emitting interval.  These systems began 10 s exposures at 09:44:40 UTC, coincident with the BAT trigger time, and 09:45:00, coincident with the primary interval in which BAT observed the most prominent gamma-ray emission.  No counterpart was detected in any of the unfiltered images taken by the sky monitoring systems with 3-sigma limiting magntiudes of 10.7 when compared with the Tycho-2 V-band.

A. S. Moskvitin and V. V. Sokolov report on behalf of larger collaboration:

The field of GRB 111029A (Troja et al., GCN#12498
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 ) was observed
with the Zeiss-1000 telescope of SAO RAS (Russia) on October 29/30 night.
12 x 300 sec. in Rc and 12 x 300 sec. in Ic images were obtained
under the good conditions and the seeing 2" (FWHM of stellar-like objects
at the co-added images). The observation started at 21:31:21 October 29
(since 11.8 hours after the trigger), finished at 00:33:51 October, 30 UT.

No optical counterpart was detected within the XRT 1".9 error circle
(according to http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions/ ) up to the 3 sigma
limiting magnitudes R_lim = 24.6 and I_lim = 23.3. The calibration was done
against R2 and I magnitudes of nearby USNO B-1.0 stars. The Rc and Ic images
can be found at ftp://ftp.sao.ru/pub/grb/GRB111029A/GRB111029A.jpg

The closest object is located 4".65 South-West from the center of XRT
error circle. The brightness of this object is R = 22.99 +/- 0.32,
I = 21.79 +/- 0.28 (the high error is due to calibration) and the
coordinates are R.A.(J2000) = 02:59:07.71, Dec.(J2000) = +57:06:35.5,
with the uncertainty 0".21. Due to cosmological nature of GRBs
this object probably can not be related to the GRB 111029A.

Adria C. Updike (Dickinson College), Dieter H. Hartmann (Clemson
University), Peter A. Milne (Steward Observatory), and G. Grant Williams
(MMT Observatory) report:

We observed the field of GRB 111029A (Troja et al., GCN 12498
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 ) with the
robotic Super-LOTIS telescope under good conditions beginning 142 seconds
after the BAT trigger.  Our observations consisted of 5 10-sec images, 5
20-sec images, and 30 60-sec images in the R band.

Stacked images reveal no new sources in the XRT enhanced error circle
(Evans et al., GCN 12502
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 ) brighter than 19.5 magnitudes in R as calibrated
relative to the USNO B1.0 catalog.

This message may be cited.

D. Kuroda (OAO, NAOJ),  H. Hanayama, T. Miyaji, J. Watanabe (IAO, NAOJ),
K. Yanagisawa (OAO, NAOJ), S.Nagayama (NAOJ), M. Yoshida (Hiroshima),
K. Ohta (Kyoto) and N. Kawai(Tokyo Tech)
report on behalf of the MITSuME collaboration:

We observed the field of GRB 111029A (Troja et al., GCNC 12498)
with the optical three color (g', Rc and Ic) CCD camera attached
to the Murikabushi 1m telescope of Ishigakijima Astronomical
Observatory.

The observation started on 2011-10-29 15:49:45 UT, (~6.1 h after the burst).
We did not find any new point source within the enhanced XRT error
circle (Evans et al., GCNC 12502) in all the three bands.


Photometric results of the OT are listed below. We used GSC2.3 catalog
for flux calibration.

#T0+[day]  MID-UT    T-EXP[sec]   g'     Rc    Ic
-----------------------------------------------------
0.30785    17:07:59   13140.0   >22.6  >22.0  >20.7
-----------------------------------------------------
T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst [day]
T-EXP: Total Exposure time [sec]

L.P. Xin,  J.Y. Wei, Y. L. Qiu,  J. Wang, J.S. Deng, 
C. Wu, X. H. Han on behalf of EAFON report:

The burst given in GCN 12503
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  should be GRB111029A, 
but not  GRB 110929A. We apologize for this typo. 

"We began to observe GRB 111029A (Troja  al., GCN 12498
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 )
with Xinglong TNT telescope at 10:35:49 (UT), about 51 min  after 
the burst.  15 R-band images were obtained under a bad seeing. 
No new source was detected in the combined R band image within 
the errorbox of XRT position. The upper limit was estimated 
to be about 19.6 mag derived from USNO B1.0 R2 mag. 

This message may be cited.

For more information about Xinglong GRBs Follow-up
observations, please visit the website:
http://www.xinglong-naoc.org:8080/grb/index.html"

O. M. Littlejohns (U. Leicester) and E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/ORAU) report
on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 19 ks of XRT data for GRB 111029A (Troja  et al. GCN
Circ. 12498
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 ), from 163 s to 58.0 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 25 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode with the remainder in Photon
Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given
by Evans et al. (GCN. Circ 12502).

The light curve can be modelled with  a power-law decay with a decay
index of alpha=1.06 (+0.07, -0.08).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.6 (+0.7, -0.5). The
best-fitting absorption column is  1.5 (+0.6, -0.3) x 10^22 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 6.3 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al.
2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion
factor deduced from this spectrum  is 5.0 x 10^-11 (2.1 x 10^-10) erg
cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     1.5 (+0.6, -0.3) x 10^22 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 6.3 x 10^21 cm^-2
Excess significance: 3.9 sigma
Photon index:	     2.6 (+0.7, -0.5)

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00506519.

This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.

A. N. Morgan (UC Berkeley) reports:

We observed the field of GRB 111029A (Troja et al., GCN 12498
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 ) with
the 1.3m PAIRITEL located at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. Observations began
at 2011-10-29 09h47m33 UT, ~2.9 minutes after the Swift Trigger.  In
mosaics taken simultaneously in the J, H, and Ks filters, we do not
detect any source within the enhanced XRT error circle (Evans et al.,
GCN 12502
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 ) in the coaddition of the first few minutes of data nor the
first hour.

The preliminary photometry yields:

post burst
t_mid(s) exp.(s) filt  U. Limit (3 sig)
551      351     J     > 17.9
551      351     H     > 16.6
551      351     Ks    > 15.7
1837.5   1919    J     > 18.5
1837.5   1919    H     > 17.5
1837.5   1919    Ks    > 16.6


All magnitudes are given in the Vega system, calibrated to 2MASS. No
correction for Galactic extinction has been made to the above reported
values.

E. A. Hoversten (PSU) and E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/ORAU)
report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:

The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 111029A
164 s after the BAT trigger (Troja et al., GCN Circ. 12498
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 ).
No optical afterglow consistent with the XRT position
(Evans et al., GCN Circ. 12502
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 ) is detected in the initial UVOT  
exposures.
Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system
(Poole et al. 2008, MNRAS, 383, 627) for the initial exposures are:

Filter         T_start(s)   T_stop(s)      Exp(s)         Mag

white (FC)         164          235           70         >20.5
white              164         5606          463         >21.6
v                 4381         6010          387         >19.6
b                 3765         5401          393         >21.0
u                 3560         5196          393         >20.9
w1                4791         4991          197         >20.0
m2                4586         4786          197         >20.6
w2                4177         5812          393         >21.0

The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic  
extinction
due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 1.55 in the direction of the burst
(Schlegel et al. 1998).

W. Li and A. V. Filippenko, University of California
at Berkeley, on behalf of the KAIT GRB team, report:

The robotic 0.8-m KAIT located at Lick Observatory responded to
GRB 111029A (Swift trigger 506519; Troja et al. GCN 12498
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 ) automatically
and started the first image at 09:47:15 UT (154.5 seconds after the burst).
A series of images were taken in the V, I, and clear filters.
No new sources were detected within the Swift/XRT error circle
in the KAIT images (single or stacked frames) when compared to
the DSS II. We set the following specific limits (calibrated
to USNO B1): 

start UT       end UT      t_exp(s)   mlim (unfilt.)  coadd?
---------------------------------------------------------------
09:47:15.0   09:47:17.0        2      18.0            N 
09:47:15.0   09:47:46.0       20      19.0            Y (2s x 10)

D. M. Palmer (LANL), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA),
C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/UMBC), M. Stamatikos (OSU),
E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU)
(i.e. the Swift-BAT team):
 
Using the data set from T-60 to T+243 sec from recent telemetry downlinks,
we report further analysis of BAT GRB 111029A (trigger #506519)
(Troja, et al., GCN Circ. 12498
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 ).  The BAT ground-calculated position is
RA, Dec = 44.785, 57.101 deg, which is 
   RA(J2000)  =  02h 59m 08.4s 
   Dec(J2000) = +57d 06' 02.9" 
with an uncertainty of 1.2 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment).
The partial coding was 75%.
 
The mask-weighted light curve shows 2 or 3 overlapping peaks starting
at ~T+15 and ending at ~T=35 sec.  T90 (15-350 keV) is 7.6 +- 1.1 sec
(estimated error including systematics).
 
The time-averaged spectrum from T+19.60 to T+28.92 sec is best fit by a power law
with an exponential cutoff.  This fit gives a photon index 0.77 +- 0.71, 
and Epeak of 36.2 +- 5.7 keV (chi squared 39.5 for 56 d.o.f.).  For this
model the total fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 3.9 +- 0.4 x 10^-7 erg/cm2
and the 1-sec peak flux measured from T+23.62 sec in the 15-150 keV band is
1.5 +- 0.2 ph/cm2/sec.  A fit to a simple power law gives a photon index
of 2.11 +- 0.13 (chi squared 53.6 for 57 d.o.f.).  All the quoted errors
are at the 90% confidence level. 
 
The results of the batgrbproduct analysis are available at
http://gcn.gsfc.nasa.gov/notices_s/506519/BA/

L.P. Xin,  J.Y. Wei, Y. L. Qiu,  J. Wang, J.S. Deng, 
C. Wu, X. H. Han on behalf of EAFON report:

We began to observe GRB 111029A (Troja  al., GCN 12498
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 )
with Xinglong TNT telescope at 10:35:49 (UT), about 51 min  after 
the burst.  15 R-band images were obtained under a bad seeing. 
No new source was detected in the combined R band image within 
the errorbox of XRT position. The upper limit was estimated 
to be about 19.6 mag derived from USNO B1.0 R2mag. 

This message may be cited.

For more information about Xinglong GRBs Follow-up
observations, please visit the website:
http://www.xinglong-naoc.org:8080/grb/index.html

[GCN OPS NOTE(30oct11): The "110929A" was corrected to "111029A";
see correction Circ 12510.]

P.A. Evans, M.R. Goad, J.P. Osborne and A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester) 
report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team.

Using 57 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 1 UVOT
images for GRB 111029A, we find an astrometrically corrected X-ray
position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment and matching UVOT field sources
to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec = 44.78376, +57.11122 which is equivalent
to:

RA (J2000): 02h 59m 8.10s
Dec (J2000): +57d 06' 40.4"

with an uncertainty of 2.5 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence).

This position may be improved as more data are received. The latest
position can be viewed at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions. Position
enhancement is described by Goad et al. (2007, A&A, 476, 1401) and Evans
et al. (2009, MNRAS, 397, 1177).

This circular was automatically generated, and is an official product of the
Swift-XRT team.

C. Guidorzi (U. Ferrara) reports on behalf of a
large collaboration:

The 2-m Faulkes Telescope North robotically followed
up Swift GRB 111029A (Troja et al. GCN Circ. 12498
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 )
from 09:49:03 UT, corresponding to 263 s after the
BAT trigger time.
Within the XRT error circle we do not find any source
in the R and i' filters down to the following magnitudes:

Mid time from  Total Exp   Filter    Magnitude
trigger (s)    (s)
-------------------------------------------------
  908            120         R > 21.8
1118            100         i' > 20.5
-------------------------------------------------

Magnitudes have been calibrated from R2 and I nominal
values of nearby USNOB1.0 stars.

L. Elenin (ISON),  A. Pozanenko (IKI), I. Molotov (KIAM) report on behalf of 
larger GRB  follow-up collaboration:

We observed the field of  GRB 111029A (Swift trigger 506519; Troja et al., 
GCN 12498
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 ) with 0.45-m telescope �f ISON-NM observatory  starting in 
automatic response mode on  Oct. 29 (UT) 09:47:47, i.e. 187 s after burst 
trigger.  We took 31 unfiltered images.  We do not detect any source within 
XRT error circle.   The photometry of a single and co-added frames is based 
on the USNO-B1.0  nearby stars (R magnitudes):

T_start,   T0+,       Exposure, OT,  Upper Limit (3sigma)
(UT)        (mid, s)   (s)

09:47:47    216.5        60       n/d    18.3
09:47:47   1101.5  15x60       n/d    19.5
09:47:47   1385.0  31x60       n/d    20.3

W. Rujopakarn (Steward), B. E. Schaefer (Louisiana State), T. Guver (U
Arizona), report on behalf of the ROTSE collaboration:

ROTSE-IIIb, located at McDonald Observatory, Texas, responded to GRB
111029A (Swift trigger 506519; Troja, GCN 12498
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 ), producing images
beginning 7.7 s after the GCN notice time. An automated response took
the first image at 09:46:34.7 UT, 114.2 s after the burst, under
excellent conditions. We took 10 5-sec, 10 20-sec and 20 60-sec
exposures. These unfiltered images are calibrated relative to USNO
A2.0 (R). Imaging is on going.

Comparison to the DSS (second epoch) reveals no new sources within the
3-sigma Swift/BAT error circle or the XRT error circle, for both
single images and coadding into sets of 10; the field is not crowded.
Individual images have limiting magnitudes ranging from 16.9-17.6; we
set the following specific limits.

start UT       end UT      t_exp(s)   mlim   t_start-tGRB(s)  Coadd?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
09:46:34.7   09:46:39.7         5     17.2          114.2       N
09:46:34.7   09:48:21.8       107     18.0          114.2       Y

E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), S. Campana (INAF-OAB),
P. A. Evans (U Leicester), C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara),
E. A. Hoversten (PSU), V. Mangano (INAF-IASFPA),
C. J. Mountford (U Leicester), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester),
K. L. Page (U Leicester) and D. M. Palmer (LANL) report on behalf of
the Swift Team:

At 09:44:40 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 111029A (trigger=506519).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 44.691, +57.085 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 02h 58m 46s
   Dec(J2000) = +57d 05' 07"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a complex
structure with a duration of at least 20 sec from T+20 to T+40. 
The peak count rate was ~1500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~23 sec
after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 09:47:39.0 UT, 178.5 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued
X-ray source located at RA, Dec 44.78260, 57.11024 which is equivalent
to:
   RA(J2000)  = 02h 59m 7.82s
   Dec(J2000) = +57d 06' 36.9"
with an uncertainty of 4.4 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 200 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position. This position
may be improved as more data are received; the latest position is
available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/sper.  We cannot determine whether
the source is fading at the present time. As this position is
significantly outside the BAT error circle, it is probably unrelated to
the trigger. 

A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event
data gives a column density consistent with the Galactic value of 6.27
x 10^21 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of  71 seconds with the White filter
starting 163 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 none of
the XRT error circle. 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 large, but
uncertain extinction expected. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is E. Troja (eleonora.troja AT nasa.gov). 
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/too.html.)