GRB 140129A

A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
M. G. Bernardini (INAF-OAB), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC),
J. A. Kennea (PSU), A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU),
F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), C. A. Swenson (PSU) and
T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 03:23:59 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 140129A (trigger=585128).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 37.869, -1.587 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 02h 31m 29s
   Dec(J2000) = -01d 35' 11"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a single peaked
structure with a duration of about 5 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~4 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 03:25:52.9 UT, 113.5 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a fading,
uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 37.89128, -1.59554 which
is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 02h 31m 33.91s
   Dec(J2000) = -01d 35' 43.9"
with an uncertainty of 3.6 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 85 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 http://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 (2.55 x
10^20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 2.2
(+1.80/-1.58) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter
starting 116 seconds after the BAT trigger. There is a candidate afterglow in
the list of sources generated on-board at
  RA(J2000)  =	02:31:33.81 =  37.89087
  DEC(J2000) = -01:35:43.3  =  -1.59536
with a 90%-confidence error radius of about 1.10 arc sec. This position is 1.6
arc sec. from the center of the XRT error circle. The estimated magnitude is
16.74. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to
E(B-V) of 0.03. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is A. Melandri (andrea.melandri AT brera.inaf.it). 
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.)

D. A. Perley (Caltech) and S. B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of a 
larger calibration:

The Palomar 60-inch telescope automatically responded to the Swift 
trigger for GRB 140129A (Melandri et al., GCN 15760
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 ) and began taking 
images at 03:27:37.8 UT, about 3.6 minutes post-GRB trigger.

We detect a bright source, not present in USNO B1.0, at the following 
location consistent with the Swift XRT and UVOT error circles:

RA  =  02:31:33.78
dec = -01:35:42.88
(J2000)

The source is detected in r, i, and z filters, and fades rapidly from 
r=16.29 to r=19.44 between UT 03:28 and 04:07.

A. Cucchiara (NASA-GSFC), Nat Butler (ASU), Alan M. Watson (UNAM), 
Alexander Kutyrev (GSFC), William H. Lee (UNAM), Michael G. Richer (UNAM), 
Chris Klein (UCB), Ori Fox (UCB), J. Xavier Prochaska (UCSC), Josh Bloom (UCB), 
Eleonora Troja (GSFC), Owen Littlejohns (ASU), Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (UCSC), 
José A. de Diego (UNAM), Leonid Georgiev (UNAM), Jesús González (UNAM), 
Carlos Román-Zúñiga (UNAM), Neil Gehrels (GSFC),
and Harvey Moseley (GSFC) report:

We began observing the field of GRB 140129A (Melandri, et al., GCN 15760
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 ) with the
Reionization and Transients Infrared Camera (RATIR; www.ratir.org) on the
1.5m Harold Johnson Telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on
Sierra San Pedro Mártir at 2014/01 29.15 (12.6 minutes after the BAT trigger).

For a source within the Swift-XRT error circle, in comparison with the SDSS 
DR9 and 2MASS, we obtain the following detections:

Filter    mag(T0+0.12.6 minutes) mag(12.6 to 44.4 minutes)     
  r   18.05 +/- 0.01  18.80 +/- 0.01
  i   17.85 +/- 0.02  18.67 +/- 0.02
  Z   17.72 +/- 0.03  18.50 +/- 0.03
  Y   17.82 +/- 0.04  18.33 +/- 0.03
  J   17.65 +/- 0.05  18.35 +/- 0.04
  H   17.68 +/- 0.07  18.19 +/- 0.05

These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic
extinction in the direction of the GRB. 
Further observations are underway.

We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro 
Mártir.

F. V. Ferrante (SMU), W. Zheng (UC Berkeley), R. Kehoe (SMU), G. Dhungana (SMU) report on behalf of the ROTSE GRB team:

The 0.45m ROTSE-IIIb telescope located at McDonald Observatory, Texas, responded to GRB 140129A (Swift trigger 585128; Melandri, et al., GCN 15760
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 ). The first image was at 03:24:58.3 UT, 57.0 s after the burst (8.3 s after the GCN notice time). The unfiltered images are calibrated relative to USNO A2.0. We confirm the afterglow candidate reported by UVOT and detect a bright source which fades rapidly from magnitude 14.1 to 16.0 between UT 03:24:58.3 and 03:26:55.7. Continuing observations are in progress.

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

Using 4216 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 7 UVOT
images for GRB 140129A, 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 = 37.89093, -1.59545 which is equivalent
to:

RA (J2000): 02h 31m 33.82s
Dec (J2000): -01d 35' 43.6"

with an uncertainty of 1.5 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.

M.C. Stroh (PSU), B.P. Gompertz (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U.
Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia
(ASDC), A. Maselli  (INAF-IASFPA), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea
(PSU) and A. Melandri report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 9.3 ks of XRT data for GRB 140129A (Melandri  et al.
GCN Circ. 15760
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 ),  from 99 s to 19.2 ks after the  BAT trigger. The
data comprise 45 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 8 s were
taken while Swift was slewing) with the remainder in Photon Counting
(PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Evans
et al. (GCN. Circ 15764).

The light curve can be modelled with  a power-law decay with a decay
index of alpha=0.89 (+/-0.03).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.94 (+0.13, -0.12). The
best-fitting absorption column is  4.0 (+2.5, -1.4) x 10^20 cm^-2,
consistent with the Galactic value of 2.6 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Kalberla et
al. 2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux
conversion factor deduced from this spectrum  is 3.6 x 10^-11 (4.0 x
10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     4.0 (+2.5, -1.4) x 10^20 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 2.6 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index:	     1.94 (+0.13, -0.12)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
0.89, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 8.7 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 3.1 x
10^-13 (3.5 x 10^-13) erg cm^-2 s^-1.

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00585128.

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

C. A. Swenson (PSU) and A. Melandri (INAF-OAB)
report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:

The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 140129A
117 s after the BAT trigger (Melandri et al., GCN Circ. 15760
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 ).
A source consistent with the XRT position (Evans et al. GCN Circ. 15764
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 )
is detected in the initial UVOT exposures.

The preliminary UVOT position is:
     RA  (J2000) =  02:31:33.78 =  37.89076 (deg.)
     Dec (J2000) = -01:35:43.4  =  -1.59539 (deg.)
with an estimated uncertainty of 0.50 arc sec. (radius, 90% confidence).

Preliminary detections and 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT 
photometric system
(Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the early 
exposures are:

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

white              117          267          147 16.51 � 0.03
v                  605         1250           78 18.69 � 0.24
b                  531          551           20 17.76 � 0.14
u                  275          525          246 16.98 � 0.04
w1                 654        17641         1357 20.77 � 0.22
m2                5292        13449         1054 >21.2
w2                 753        11858         1102 >22.0

The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction
due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.03 in the direction of the burst
(Schlegel et al. 1998).

C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA),
A. Y. Lien (NASA/UMBC), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
T. Sakamoto (AGU), M. Stamatikos (OSU), J. Tueller (GSFC),
T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team):

Using the data set from T-239 to T+963 sec from the recent telemetry downlink,
we report further analysis of BAT GRB 140129A (trigger #585128)
(Melandri, et al., GCN Circ. 15760
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 ).  The BAT ground-calculated position is
RA, Dec = 37.851, -1.594 deg which is
  RA(J2000)  =  02h 31m 24.2s
  Dec(J2000) = -01d 35' 40.1"
with an uncertainty of 2.2 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment).
The partial coding was 57%.

The mask-weighted light curve shows a single peak structure starts at ~T+1.2 s,
peaks at ~T+2.5 s, and ends at ~ T+4.6 s. T90 (15-350 keV) is 2.99 +- 0.79 sec
(estimated error including systematics).

The time-averaged spectrum from T+1.25 to T+4.62 sec is best fit by a simple
power-law model.  The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is
2.08 +- 0.33.  The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 1.3 +- 0.3 x 10^-7 erg/cm2.
The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T+1.91 sec in the 15-150 keV band
is 0.9 +- 0.2 ph/cm2/sec.  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/585128/BA/

D. Kuroda, K. Yanagisawa, Y. Shimizu, H. Toda (OAO, NAOJ),
S. Nagayama (NAOJ), M. Yoshida (Hiroshima), K. Ohta (Kyoto)
and N. Kawai(Tokyo Tech)
report on behalf of MITSuME collaboration:

We observed the field of GRB 140129A (Melandri et al., GCNC 15760)
with the optical three color (g', Rc and Ic) CCD camera attached
to the MITSuME 50cm telescope of Okayama Astrophysical Observatory.

The observation started on 2014-01-29 09:31:12 UT (~6.1 h after the burst).
We could not detect the previously reported afterglow (Melandri et al.,
GCNC 15760; Perley and Cenko, GCNC 15761) in all the three bands.

Three sigma upper limits of the OT are listed below.
We used GSC2.3 catalog for flux calibration.

#T0+[day]  MID-UT    T-EXP[sec]   g'     Rc     Ic
-----------------------------------------------------
0.29723    10:32:00    4020.0   >19.6  >19.7  >18.9
-----------------------------------------------------
T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst [day]

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

The RAPTOR network of robotic optical telescopes made follow-up observations
of Swift trigger 585128 (Melandri, et al., GCN 15760
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 ).  Our narrow-field
instruments in Los Alamos, NM,  began imaging at 03:25:05.19 UT, 65.7 seconds
after the BAT trigger time.  Our RAPTOR-T robotic telescope measured the
counterpart simultaneously in SDSS g', r', i', and z' bands through the first
1000 seconds after the BAT trigger.  In r' band, the counterpart is at
magnitude 14.72 +- 0.04 at T+68.22 seconds.  By T+217.21, the source had
faded to r' magnitude 16.24 +- 0.07, consistent with the P60 observations
(Perley, et al., GCN 15761
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 ).  The counterpart fades monotonically during the
observation interval.  Our images were calibrated to the SDSS DR9 catalog.

D. A. Perley (Caltech), M. Rafelski, D. Masters (IPAC), and J. X. 
Prochaska (UCO/Lick) report:

We obtained spectroscopy of the optical afterglow of GRB 140129A 
(Melandri et al., GCN 15760
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 ) with the Double Spectrograph at the 5m 
Palomar Hale telescope beginning at 04:56:25.2 UT, approximately 1.5 
hours after the GRB trigger.  Based on our P60 imaging, the GRB 
afterglow was r~20 mag at this point and the S/N of the spectrum is low, 
although the trace is clearly detected in each of three 600s exposures. 
The spectral range covers from the atmospheric cutoff to 8700 Angstroms.

The spectrum is featureless, showing no significant absorption lines 
over our spectral range (although the EW sensitivity limit is poor). 
The absence of a DLA feature suggests a redshift of z<1.8 (more 
conservatively, the lack of IGM absorption down to the atmospheric 
cutoff indicates z<2.1).

D. A. Perley (Caltech) reports on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We observed the position of GRB 140129A (Melandri et al., GCN 15760
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 ) 
with the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy starting at 
04:57:21 UT, 94 minutes after the GRB trigger.  Observations continued 
until 06:10:30 UT (source elevation = 19 degrees).  No source is 
detected at the optical afterglow location to a limiting flux of <1.8 
mJy (3 sigma).

We thank C. Hull, N. Volgneau, and the CARMA staff for this rapid 
observation.

Nat Butler (ASU), Alan M. Watson (UNAM), Alexander Kutyrev (GSFC), William
H. Lee (UNAM), Michael G. Richer (UNAM), Chris Klein (UCB), Ori Fox (UCB),
J. Xavier Prochaska (UCSC), Josh Bloom (UCB), Antonino Cucchiara
(ORAU/GSFC), Eleonora Troja (GSFC), Owen Littlejohns (ASU), Enrico
Ramirez-Ruiz (UCSC), José A. de Diego (UNAM), Leonid Georgiev (UNAM), Jesús
González (UNAM), Carlos Román-Zúñiga (UNAM), Neil Gehrels (GSFC), and
Harvey Moseley (GSFC) report:

We observed the field of GRB 140129A (Melandri, et al., GCN 15760
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 ) with the
Reionization and Transients Infrared Camera (RATIR; www.ratir.org) on the
1.5m Harold Johnson Telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on
Sierra San Pedro Mártir from 2014/01 30.13 to 2014/01 30.23 UTC (23.82 to
26.22 hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 1.36 hours
exposure in the r and i bands and 0.56 hours exposure in the Z, Y, J, and H
bands.

For a source within the Swift-XRT error circle, in comparison with the SDSS
DR9 and 2MASS, we obtain the following detections and upper limits
(3-sigma):

  r     22.67 +/- 0.13
  i     22.32 +/- 0.11
  Z     22.19 +/- 0.27
  Y     21.94 +/- 0.37
  J     > 21.78
  H     > 21.28

These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic
extinction in the direction of the GRB.  The afterglow has faded by several
magnitudes in all bands since our observations last night (Cucchiara et
al., GCN 15762
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 ).

We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro
Mártir.

A. Volnova (IKI), N. Tungalag (Research Centre of Astronomy and Geophysics 
MAS ) V. Voropaev (KIAM), I.Molotov (KIAM), A. Pozanenko (IKI) report on 
behalf of larger GRB
follow-up collaboration:

We observed the field of the Swift GRB 140129A (Melandri et al., GCN 15760
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 ) 
on Jan., 29 with ORI-40 telescope of  Khureltogot  observatory (Mongolia). 
We took
several unfiltered images  of 60 s exposure. Within enhanced XRT error 
circle (Evans et al., GCN 15764
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 ) we do not detect the optical afterglow 
(Melandri et al., GCN 15760
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 ).

Details of the photometry are following:

UT start        t-T0             Filter   Exp.     OT   UL (3 sigma)
                  (mid, days)                 (s)
12:02:22     0.38515         None   68x60   n/d   20.0

The photometry is based 3 SDSS stars, R (gri -> R transformations by
Lupton 2005):

SDSS id                                 R
J023133.01-013533.5       18.121
J023122.45-013411.0       18.797
J023137.01-013606.5       19.143

Nat Butler (ASU), Alan M. Watson (UNAM), Alexander Kutyrev (GSFC), William
H. Lee (UNAM), Michael G. Richer (UNAM), Chris Klein (UCB), Ori Fox (UCB),
J. Xavier Prochaska (UCSC), Josh Bloom (UCB), Antonino Cucchiara
(ORAU/GSFC), Eleonora Troja (GSFC), Owen Littlejohns (ASU),
Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (UCSC), José A. de Diego (UNAM), Leonid Georgiev
(UNAM), Jesús González (UNAM), Carlos Román-Zúñiga (UNAM), Neil Gehrels
(GSFC), and Harvey Moseley (GSFC) report:

We again observed the field of GRB 140129A (Melandri, et al., GCN 15760
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 )
with the Reionization and Transients Infrared Camera (RATIR; www.ratir.org)
on the 1.5m Harold Johnson Telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico
Nacional on Sierra San Pedro Mártir from 2014/01 31.11 to 2014/01 31.20 UTC
(47.35 to 49.51 hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 1.38
hours exposure in the r and i bands and 0.58 hours exposure in the Z, Y, J,
and H bands.

The afterglow observed previously by RATIR (Cucchiara, et al., GCN 15762
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 ;
Butler, et al., GCN 15779
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 ) is no longer detected.  In comparison with the
SDSS DR9 and 2MASS, we obtain the following upper limits (3-sigma):

  r     > 22.99
  i     > 22.59
  Z     > 21.59
  Y     > 21.14
  J     > 20.82
  H     > 20.49

These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic
extinction in the direction of the GRB.

A. Corsi (GWU) reports on behalf of a larger collaboration:

We observed the field of the Swift GRB 140129A (Melandri et al., GCN #15760
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 ) 
using the the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in C-band, and starting at 
00:57:45 UT on 30 Jan 2014.  A provisional reduction shows no radio emission 
above the 3-sigma level of 30uJy (the map rms is ~10uJy at 5 GHz) within the Swift 
XRT error-circle (Evans et al. GCN #15764
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 ). The flux density at the P60 optical 
afterglow position (Perley & Cenko, GCN #15761
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 ) is -8 +/-10 uJy at 5 GHz. 

We thank the VLA staff for executing these observations.

GRB 140129A: Mondy optical observations

A. Volnova (IKI), E. Klunko (ISTP), M. Eselevich (ISTP), I. Korobtsev
(ISTP), A. Pozanenko (IKI) report on behalf of larger GRB follow-up
collaboration:

We observed the field of the Swift GRB 140129A (Melandri et al., GCN
15760
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 )with AZT-33IK telescope of Sayan observatory (Mondy) starting on
on Jan. 29 (UT) 12:21:46. We took several images in R-filter of 60 s
exposure. Within enhanced XRT error circle (Evans, GCN 15764
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 ) we
detected the optical afterglow (Melandri et al., GCN 15760
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 ).


The details of the photometry are the following:

UT start t-T0 Filter Exp. OT
(mid, days) (s)
12:21:46 0.38805 R 42x60 21.39 +/- 0.25

The photometry is based 3 SDSS stars, R (gri -> R transformations by
Lupton 2005):

SDSS id R
J023133.01-013533.5 18.121
J023122.45-013411.0 18.797
J023137.01-013606.5 19.143