GRB 140703A

D. Kocevski (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
J. R. Cummings (NASA/UMBC), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC),
K. L. Page (U Leicester), J. L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC),
M. H. Siegel (PSU) and T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) report on behalf of the
Swift Team:

At 00:37:17 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 140703A (trigger=603243).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 12.990, +45.095 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 00h 51m 58s
   Dec(J2000) = +45d 05' 41"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve showed a two-peak
structure with a duration of about 90 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~1781 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 00:39:09.8 UT, 112.8 seconds after
the BAT trigger. XRT found a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located
at RA, Dec 12.9958, 45.1015 which is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = +00h 51m 58.99s
   Dec(J2000) = +45d 06' 05.4"
with an uncertainty of 4.7 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 27 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, within the BAT
error circle. No event data are yet available to determine the column
density using X-ray spectroscopy. 

The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 1.12e-08 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10
keV). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 116 seconds with the White filter
starting 123 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 expected
extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.10. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is D. Kocevski (dankocevski AT gmail.com). 
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.)

R. Cunniffe, A. Gonzalez-Rodriguez, V. Casanova, M. Jelinek, S. Jeong, O.
Lara-Gil, S. R. Oates, R. Sanchez-Ramirez, J. C. Tello (IAA-CSIC Granada),
P. Kubanek (IP-ASCR, Prague), J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC, UPV-EHU) and A. J.
Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC, ISA-UMA), report:

Following the detection of GRB 140703A by Swift (Kocevski et al., GCNC
16503), the 0.6m TELMA robotic telescope at the BOOTES-2 astronomical
station Malaga (Spain), responded to the GRB location starting at 00:38:02
UT (i.e. 45s postburst, in the clear filter, 5s integrations). In the
longer exposures (i'-band, 60s) starting at 00:47:30 (i.e. 10 min
postburst), a faint optical source is barely detected in the images, at
the outskirts of the XRT position, which is confirmed by the 1.5m OSN
images at Sierra Nevada Observatory starting at 00:54 UT (I-band), with a
magnitude of about 20, which does not seem to be present in the DSS-2. The
preliminary position (+/- 1") is:

RA(J2000) = 00 51 59.05, Dec (J2000) = +45 06 06.

The source is detected in all optical filters. Additional observations
(imaging and spectroscopy) are ongoing.

[GCN OPS NOTE(03jul14): Per author's request, the starting time was changed
from 00:30:02 to 00:38:02 (ie 8 min later), and the characterset represenation
for the i'-band specification was changed to plain-text.]

A. J. Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC), R. Cunniffe (IAA-CSIC), R. Sanchez-Ramirez (IAA-CSIC), J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC/UPV-EHU), M. Jelinek (IAA-CSIC), S.R. Oates (IAA-CSIC), S. Jeong (IAA-CSIC), J. R. Tello (IAA-CSIC), S. Pandey (ARIES), G. Gomez-Velarde (GTC, IAC), A. Perez (GTC), report on behalf of a larget collaboration:

"We obtained 2x450s optical spectra  of GRB 140703A (Kocevski et al. GCN16503
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 ) optical afterglow (Cunniffe et al. GCN16504
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 ) with the 10.4m GTC(+OSIRIS) with a wavelength coverage of 4000--9500 AA based on R1000R and R1000B grisms. The combined spectrum shows a deep Lyman-alpha absorption and many metallic absorption lines (AlI, CII, CIV,AlIII..). Using archival calibration lamps  we infer a common redshift of z=3.14."

[GCN OPS NOTE(03jul14):  Per author's request, G.G-V & A.P. were added to the author list.]

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

Using 2188 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 5 UVOT
images for GRB 140703A, 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 = 12.99574, +45.10185 which is equivalent
to:

RA (J2000): 00h 51m 58.98s
Dec (J2000): +45d 06' 06.7"

with an uncertainty of 1.7 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.

E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, M.Pruzhinskaya,  P.Balanutsa, V.Kornilov,
D.Kuvshinov, N.Tyurina, A.Kuznetsov
Lomonosov Moscow State University,
Sternberg Astronomical Institute

A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik
Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory

V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, E.Sinyakov, A. Gabovich
Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk

K.Ivanov, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev, O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev, V.A.Poleshchuk
Irkutsk State University

V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnih,  A. Popov
Ural Federal University, Kourovka

Hugo Levato and Carlos Saffe
Instituto de Ciencias Astronomicas, de la Tierra y del Espacio (ICATE)

Claudio Mallamaci, Carlos Lopez and Federico Podest
Observatorio Astronomico Felix Aguilar (OAFA)



MASTER II  robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) 
located in Kislovodsk was pointed to the  GRB 140703A (Kocevski et. al., 
GCN 16503
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 ) 2 sec after notice time and 45 sec after trigger time at 
2014-07-03 00:38:03 UT on morning sky in two polarizations.
We have 10 good  frames with an increasing exposition from 10 to 70 
seconds that of that as there overlighting came. On our first (10s 
exposure)  set we haven`t see optical transient (Cunniffe et. al., GCN 
16504
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 ; Castro-Tirado et. al., GCN 16505
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 ) on our single and coadd image.


Pro.type   T-T_trig   T_start  Exp.time   Limit   Filt.   Tube.
             (mean)     (UT)
  Alert        51     00:38:03     10      15.9     P-       EAST
  Alert        51     00:38:03     10      15.7     P|       WEST
  Coadd        77     00:38:03     40      16.8     P-       EAST
  Coadd        77     00:38:03     40      16.5     P|       WEST
  Coadd       169     00:38:03     180     16.7     P|       WEST
  Coadd       244     00:38:03     310     17.5     P-       EAST
  Coadd       244     00:38:03     570     18.0    White   WEST+EAST
  Alert        72     00:38:24     10      15.9     P-       EAST
  Alert        72     00:38:24     10      15.8     P|       WEST
  Alert        98     00:38:45     20      16.0     P|       WEST
  Alert        98     00:38:45     20      16.2     P-       EAST
  Alert       129     00:39:16     20      15.7     P|       WEST
  Alert       129     00:39:16     20      16.2     P-       EAST
  Coadd       174     00:39:16     90      17.1     P-       EAST
  Coadd       174     00:39:16     90      16.4     P|       WEST
  Alert       164     00:39:47     30      16.4     P-       EAST
  Alert       164     00:39:47     30      15.7     P|       WEST
  Alert       210     00:40:27     40      15.7     P|       WEST
  Alert       210     00:40:27     40      16.5     P-       EAST
  Alert       266     00:41:18     50      15.5     P|       WEST
  Alert       266     00:41:18     50      16.4     P-       EAST
  Coadd       342     00:41:18     80      16.5     P-       EAST

The message may be cited.

[GCN OPS NOTE(03jul14): As per GCN Circ 16508
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 , the Subject-line
was changed from 140629A to 140703A.]

The correct sublject of the GCN 16507
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  is
"GRB 140703A: MASTER optical observations"

I am sorry,
Vladimir Lipunov

The message may be cited.

H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), D. Kocevski (NASA/GSFC/ORAU),
A. Y. Lien (NASA/UMBC), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), 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 recent telemetry downlinks,
we report further analysis of BAT GRB 140703A (trigger #603243)
(Kocevski, et al., GCN Circ. 16503
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 ).  The BAT ground-calculated position is
RA, Dec = 13.010, 45.102 deg, which is 
   RA(J2000)  =  00h 52m 02.4s 
   Dec(J2000) = +45d 06' 07.5" 
with an uncertainty of 1.6 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment).
The partial coding was 14%.
 
The mask-weighted light curve shows several peaks starting at ~T-70 sec,
peakings at ~T-50, ~T+2 & ~T+70 sec, and ending at ~T+140 sec.
T90 (15-350 keV) is 67.1 +- 67.9 sec (estimated error including systematics).
 
The time-averaged spectrum from T-2.5 to T+134.8 sec is best fit by a simple
power-law model.  The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is
1.74 +- 0.13.  The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 3.9 +- 0.3 x 10^-6 erg/cm2.
The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T+0.36 sec in the 15-150 keV band
is 2.8 +- 0.6 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/603243/BA/

K.L. Page (U. Leicester), C. Pagani (U. Leicester), A. Melandri
(INAF-OAB), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), M.C.
Stroh (PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U.
Leicester) and D. Kocevski report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 7.5 ks of XRT data for GRB 140703A (Kocevski  et al.
GCN Circ. 16503
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 ),  from 104 s to 39.2 ks after the  BAT trigger. The
data comprise 126 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 7 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 Goad
et al. (GCN Circ. 16506
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 ).

The light curve can be modelled with a series of power-law decays. The
initial decay index is alpha=0.1 (+1.5, -1.6). At T+120 s  the decay
steepens to an alpha of 6.8 (+0.4, -0.3). The light curve breaks again
at T+158 s to a decay with alpha=5.1 (+/-0.4),	and  again at T+319 s s
to alpha=0.1 (+0.6, -0.4),  before a final break at T+7413 s s after
which the decay index is 1.56 (+0.14, -0.13).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 2.84 (+0.08, -0.07). The
best-fitting absorption column is  5.2 (+/-0.6) x 10^22 cm^-2, at a
redshift of 3.14, in addition to the Galactic value of 1.3 x 10^21
cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index
of 1.82 (+/-0.09) and a best-fitting absorption column of 5.4 (+8.0,
-5.4) x 10^21 cm^-2. The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV
flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum  is 3.8 x 10^-11 (4.6
x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Galactic foreground: 1.3 x 10^21 cm^-2
Intrinsic column:    5.4 (+8.0, -5.4) x 10^21 cm^-2 at z=3.14
Photon index:	     1.82 (+/-0.09)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.56, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.022 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 8.4 x
10^-13 (1.0 x 10^-12) erg cm^-2 s^-1.

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00603243.

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

F. Ciabattari, S. Donati, E. Mazzoni, G. Petroni and M. Rossi (Monte Agliale Observatory, Borgo a 
Mozzano, Italy) report:

We observed the field of GRB 140703A (Kocevski et al., GCNC 16503) with the automatic 0.5m Newtonian
telescope + FLI ProLine PL4710 camera at Monte Agliale Observatory (Borgo a Mozzano, Italy, MPC code 
159).
The observations started at 2014-07-03 01:57:43 UT (~80 minutes after the trigger) and we co-added
20 unfiltered CCD exposures of 20 seconds each.
We detect a new source of mag. R = 19.8 +/-0.3 (USNO-B1 catalogue) at the following position:
R.A.(J2000) = 00h 51m 59.01s
Dec.(J2000) = +45d 06' 06.1"
FITS files are available on request from fabciaba@alice.it.
The message may be cited.

P. Jenke (UAH) reports on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team:

"At 00:37:07.19 UT on July 3 2014, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor
triggered and located GRB 140603A (trigger 426040630/140703026),
which was also detected by 
Swift (D. Kocevski et al. 2014, GCN 16503
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 ).  
The GBM on-ground location, using the Fermi GBM trigger
data, is consistent with the Swift/XRT location
and the TELMA robotic telescope 
location (R. Cunniffe et al. 2014 GCN16504
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 ).  

The angle of the burst direction to the Fermi LAT boresight
 is 16 degrees.

The GBM light curve consists of one main FRED-like peak near T0 and a
late smaller peak at ~T0+70s with a duration (T90) of about
84s (50-300 keV).
The time-averaged spectrum from T0-4s to T0+31s 
is well fit by a power law function with an exponential 
high-energy cutoff.  The power law index is -1.10 +/- 0.06
and the cutoff energy, parameterized as Epeak, is 177 +/- 14 keV. 

The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is
(7.4 +/- 0.4)E-07 ergs/cm^2. The 1.0-sec peak photon flux measured
starting from T0+9.7s in the 10-1000 keV band
is 4.1 +/- 0.2 ph/s/cm^2.

The spectral analysis results presented above are preliminary;
final results will be published in the GBM GRB Catalog."

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), Jos�� A. de Diego (UNAM), Leonid Georgiev (UNAM), Jes��s
Gonz��lez (UNAM), Carlos Rom��n-Z����iga (UNAM), Neil Gehrels (GSFC), and
Harvey Moseley (GSFC) report:

We observed the field of GRB 140703A (Kocevski, et al., GCN 16503
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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 Astron��mico Nacional on
Sierra San Pedro M��rtir from 2014/07 3.43 to 2014/07 3.47 UTC (9.74 to
10.68 hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 0.71 hours
exposure in the r and i bands and 0.29 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:

  r     20.32 +/- 0.03
  i     19.72 +/- 0.03
  Z     18.53 +/- 0.05
  Y     18.31 +/- 0.05
  J     19.60 +/- 0.17
  H     18.98 +/- 0.09

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

We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astron��mico Nacional in San Pedro
M��rtir.

D. A. Perley (Caltech) and S. B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC) report:

We observed the afterglow of GRB 140703A (Kocevski et al., GCN 16503
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 ) 
with the Palomar 60-inch (P60) robotic telescope.  We acquired 3x180s in 
each of the r, i, and z filters between 08:40:37 and 09:11:02 on 
2014-07-03 UT.  We measure the following magnitudes:

    r = 20.03 +/- 0.02   t_mid = 0.3462 days
    i = 19.46 +/- 0.02   t_mid = 0.3380 days
    z = 18.99 +/- 0.05   t_mid = 0.3533 days

This indicates very little fading since the observations of Cunniffe et 
al. (GCN 16504
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 ) and Ciabattari et al. (GCN 16511
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 ).  However, the 
spectroscopy of Castro-Tirado et al. (GCN 16505
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 ) confirms this source is 
the GRB afterglow.

We note that the afterglow color is fairly red (beta~2.2 after 
correction for foreground extinction), possibly indicating significant 
dust obscuration in the host frame.

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

We observed the position of GRB 140703A (Kocevski et al., GCN 16503
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 ) 
with the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy starting at 
2013-07-03 16:39:55 UT (0.668 days post-GRB) at a mean frequency of ~93 
GHz; the observation is still ongoing.

We detect a strong source in the existing data set at the location of 
the X-ray and optical afterglows (Goad et al., GCN 16506
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 ; Castro-Tirado 
et al., GCN 16504
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 ) with a flux of approximately 2 mJy.

We thank Nikolaus Volgenau, observers K. Jameson and E. Grand, and the 
CARMA staff for executing the observation.

A. Corsi (GWU / TTU) reports on behalf of a larger collaboration:
 
We imaged the position of GRB 140703A (Kocevski et al., GCN 16503
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 ) with the 
Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in K-band, starting at about 8.5 hours after 
the burst. A provisional reduction shows a source consistent with the location of the 
GRB X-ray and optical afterglows (Goad et al., GCN 16506
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 ; Cunniffe et al., GCN 16504
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 ). 
At this time, we estimate a preliminary flux of about 280 uJy at 19 GHz.
 
Further observations are planned.

A. Volnova (IKI), R. Inasaridze (AAO), O. Kvaratskhelia (AAO), V.
Ayvazian (AAO), Yu. Krugly (IA KhNU), I. Molotov (KIAM), A. Pozanenko
(IKI) report on behalf of larger GRB follow-up collaboration:

We observed the Swift GRB 140703A (Kocevski et al., GCN 16503
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 ) with 
AS-32 (0.7m) telescope of Abastumani Observatory starting on July, 07 
(UT) 23:27:06. We obtained several unfiltered frames under exellent 
weather with exposure of each frame of 120 s. The  optical afterglow 
(Cunniffe et al. GCN16504
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 ) is well detected on the stacked image.

Details of a photometry of the pi-redsifted GRB 140703A (Castro-Tirado 
et al., GCN 16505
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 ) are following:

date       UT start   t-T0       Filter  Exp.    OT        err
                      (mid, days)         (s)

2014-07-03 23:27:06  0.97235     None    23*120  21.27 +/- 0.08

The photometry is based on following SDSS stars and gri -> R 
transformation (Lupton, 2005)

SDSS id              R_Lupton
J005158.97+450627.1  17.374 �� 0.011
J005153.14+450619.0  16.257 �� 0.011
J005202.70+450621.8  18.216 �� 0.014


Finding chart can be found at
http://grb.rssi.ru/GRB140703A/GRB140703A_AAO_fc.png

M. H. Siegel (PSU) and D. Kocevski (NASA/GSFC/ORAU)
report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:

The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 140703A
123 s after the BAT trigger (Kocevski et al., GCN Circ. 16503
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 ).
No optical afterglow consistent with the XRT position
(Kocevski et al. GCN Circ. 16503
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 )
is detected in the initial UVOT exposures.
Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system
(Breeveld et al. 2011, AIP Conf. Proc. 1358, 373) for the first
finding chart (FC) exposure and subsequent exposures are:

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

white_FC           123          239          114         >19.7
white              123         5830          507         >20.5
v                 4606         4806          197         >19.3
b                 3991         5626          393         >20.2
u                 3785         5420          393         >20.1
w1                5016         5216          197         >19.7
m2                4811         5010          197         >20.2
w2                4401         6002          359         >20.7

The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction
due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.10 in the direction of the burst
(Schlegel et al. 1998).

G. E. Anderson, R. P. Fender, T. D. Staley (University of Oxford), A. J. van der Horst (University of Amsterdam) and A. Rowlinson (CASS)

We observed the position of GRB 140703A (GCN 16503
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 ) at 15 GHz with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI-LA) starting on 2014 July 3.03 to 3.12 UT and July 4.22 to 4.38 UT, corresponding to <12 minutes and 1.19 days post-burst. No radio counterpart was detected during our first observation with a 3-sigma upper limit of 0.18 mJy. However, the radio counterpart (GCN 16515
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  and 16516
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 ) was detected during our second observation with a preliminary flux of 0.25 +/- 0.05 mJy.

Further AMI monitoring is planned. We thank the AMI staff for scheduling these observations.

A. J. Nayana (NCRA-TIFR) and Poonam Chandra (NCRA-TIFR) reports:

We carried out Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations of
GRB 140703A  (GCN 16503
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 ) in the 1390 MHz band on 2013 July 10.12 UT and 
12.91 UT,
respectively. We do not detect the radio afterglow of the GRB in this 
frequency.
The 3-sigma upper limit at the two epochs are 174 and 177 uJy, 
respectively. The map resolutions
of the two images are 2.5"x2.0" and 3.1"x2.1", respectively.

We thank GMRT staff for making these observations possible.