GRB 140709A

L. M. Z. Hagen (PSU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), S. B. Cenko (GSFC),
M. M. Chester (PSU), J. R. Cummings (NASA/UMBC),
N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU),
H. A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC),
D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (AGU), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU)
and M. H. Siegel (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team:

At 01:13:41 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and
located GRB 140709A (trigger=603810).  Swift slewed immediately to the burst. 
The BAT on-board calculated location is 
RA, Dec 304.639, +51.223 which is 
   RA(J2000) = 20h 18m 33s
   Dec(J2000) = +51d 13' 23"
with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including 
systematic uncertainty).  The BAT light curve shows several peaks
with a total duration of about 80 sec.  The peak count rate
was ~2800 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. 

The XRT began observing the field at 01:15:04.0 UT, 82.9 seconds after
the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright,
uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 304.66332, 51.22316 which
is equivalent to:
   RA(J2000)  = 20h 18m 39.20s
   Dec(J2000) = +51d 13' 23.4"
with an uncertainty of 3.7 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This
location is 54 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. No
spectrum from the promptly downlinked event data is yet available to
determine the column density. 

The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 1.01e-08 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10
keV). 

UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White
filter  starting 92 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 100% of  the XRT error circle. The typical
3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag. Results from the list of
sources generated on-board are not available at this  time. No
correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to
E(B-V) of 0.40. 

Burst Advocate for this burst is L. M. Z. Hagen (lea.zernow.hagen 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.)

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 140709A (Hagen, et al., GCN 16546
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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 9.17 to 2014/07 9.25 UTC (2.76 to 4.78
hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 1.42 hours exposure in
the r and i bands and 0.60 hours exposure in the Z, Y, J, and H bands.

We detect no sources within the Swift-XRT error circle.  In comparison with
2MASS, we obtain the following upper limits (3-sigma):

  r > 23.39
  i > 23.20
  Z > 22.17
  Y > 21.61
  J > 21.55
  H > 21.13

These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic
extinction in the direction of the GRB.  We note that a faint, red source
is detected just outside the XRT error region at a position:

 RA, DEC = 304.661780,  51.224069 +/- 0.5" (J2000), with

  r > 23.08
  i = 22.15 +/- 0.13
  Z = 21.43 +/- 0.18
  Y > 21.25
  J = 20.90 +/- 0.20
  H = 20.76 +/- 0.25

We cannot confirm fading in this source.  We thank the staff of the
Observatorio Astron��mico Nacional in San Pedro M��rtir.

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

Using 1569 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 4 UVOT
images for GRB 140709A, 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 = 304.66235, +51.22497 which is
equivalent
to:

RA (J2000): 20h 18m 38.96s
Dec (J2000): +51d 13' 29.9"

with an uncertainty of 1.6 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.

N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL) and L. M. Z. Hagen (PSU)
report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team:

The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 140709A
93 s after the BAT trigger (Hagen et al., GCN Circ. 16546
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 ).  No optical
afterglow consistent with the XRT position (Evans et al. GCN Circ. 16548
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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            93          242          147         >21.0
white               93         2199          186         >21.3
v                 2055         5878          216         >19.8
b                 1979        12414          848         >21.8
u                  305         6434          330         >20.5
w1                2104         6288          216         >20.2
m2                5883         6083          197         >19.9
w2                2030         2050           19         >19.7

The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction
due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.40 in the direction of the burst
(Schlegel et al. 1998).

V. D'Elia (ASDC), M. de Pasquale (INAF-IASFPA), V. Mangano (PSU), M.C.
Stroh (PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), B.P.
Gompertz (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), A. Maselli 
(INAF-IASFPA) and L.M.Z. Hagen report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 7.1 ks of XRT data for GRB 140709A (Hagen  et al. GCN
Circ. 16546
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 ),  from 75 s to 30.7 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 195 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 6 s were taken
while Swift was slewing) with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC)
mode. 

The late-time light curve (from T0+5.7 ks) can be modelled with  a
power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=0.89 (+0.08, -0.09).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 2.48 (+/-0.07). The
best-fitting absorption column is  9.9 (+/-0.5) x 10^21 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 4.1 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 1.88 (+/-0.14) and a
best-fitting absorption column of 8.0 (+1.2, -1.1) x 10^21 cm^-2. The
counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor
deduced from this spectrum  is 4.9 x 10^-11 (8.0 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2
count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     8.0 (+1.2, -1.1) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 4.1 x 10^21 cm^-2
Excess significance: 5.8 sigma
Photon index:	     1.88 (+/-0.14)

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 0.038 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.9 x
10^-12 (3.1 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/00603810.

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

C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC),
J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), L. M. Z. Hagen (PSU),
H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), A. Y. Lien (NASA/UMBC), 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+626 sec from the recent telemetry downlink,
we report further analysis of BAT GRB 140709A (trigger #603810)
(Hagen, et al., GCN Circ. 16546
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 ).  The BAT ground-calculated position is
RA, Dec = 304.666, 51.222 deg which is
    RA(J2000)  =  20h 18m 39.9s
    Dec(J2000) = +51d 13' 17.8"
with an uncertainty of 1.0 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment).
The partial coding was 61%.

The mask-weighted light curve shows a complex structure.  Burst activity begins
at T-50 sec, with a gradual rise to a peak at T+0 sec, punctuated by several
subsidiary peaks.  Then there is a return to near background by T+8 sec,
followed by a second main peak at T+15 sec.  There are additional smaller and
softer peaks centered at T+55 and T+75 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 98.6 +- 7.7 sec
(estimated error including systematics).

The time-averaged spectrum from T-46.1 to T+93.4 sec is best fit by a power law
with an exponential cutoff.  This fit gives a photon index 1.23 +- 0.27,
and Epeak of 78.0 +- 20.4 keV (chi squared 57.80 for 56 d.o.f.).  For this
model the total fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 5.2 +- 0.2 x 10^-6 erg/cm2
and the 1-sec peak flux measured from T+15.48 sec in the 15-150 keV band is
3.1 +- 0.3 ph/cm2/sec.  A fit to a simple power law gives a photon index
of 1.74 +- 0.06 (chi squared 69.09 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/603810/BA/

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

Following the detection of GRB 140709A by Swift (Hagen et al., GCNC 16546),
the 0.6m TELMA robotic telescope at the BOOTES-2 astronomical station
Malaga (Spain), responded to the GRB location starting at 01:14:41 UT (i.e.
60s postburst, in the clear filter, 5s integrations), with an upper limit
of R > 16.5. Further optical observations were carried out at the 1.5m OSN
telescope starting on July 9.06-9.12 UT (i.e. 0.37--1.72 hours post GRB). A
source coincident with the enhanced XRT position is found (Evans et al. GCN
16548
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 ) at coordinates RA(J2000) = 20:18:38.95,  DEC(J2000) = 51:13:29.6
(+/-0.5") when the 78x60s frames are co-added.  Using USNO-B1.0 as
reference, we measure a Vega magnitude of I = 20.8 (uncorrected for
Galactic reddening), which is the potential optical afterglow. At the
present stage we do not know is the source is fading or not. We also detect
the object reported by RATIR (Butler et al. GCN 16547
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 ), which is not
consistent with the position of our candidate. Further observations are
planned.

E. Burns (UAH) reports on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team:

"At 01:13:41.38 UT on 09 July 2014, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor
triggered and located GRB 140709A (trigger 426561224 / 140709051).
which was also detected by the Swift/BAT (L. Hagen et al., GCN 16546
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 )
The GBM on-ground location is consistent with the Swift position.

The angle from the Fermi LAT boresight is 111 degrees.

The GBM light curve consists of two main peaks
with a duration (T90) of about 70s (50-300 keV).
The time-averaged spectrum from T0-25 s to T0+45 s is
best fit by a power law function with an exponential
high-energy cutoff.  The power law index is -1.10 +/- 0.07 and
the cutoff energy, parameterized as Epeak, is 126 +/- 9 keV

The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is
(8.8 +/- 0.4)E-06 erg/cm^2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured
starting from T0+15.0 s in the 10-1000 keV band
is 5.2 +/- 0.3 ph/s/cm^2.

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

G. Masi, the Virtual Telescope Project - Italy, reports:

I started observations of GRB 140709A (Hagen et al. GCN  16546
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 ) with the 17" 
robotic unit part of the Virtual Telescope (Ceccano, Italy) at 02:04:00 UT, 3000 
seconds after the burst.

An optical source is visible where described by Castro-Tirado et al. (GCN 16554
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 ) 
in a image coming from the sum of three, 180-seconds exposures, unfiltered. The 
position of the source is RA: 20h18m38.94s +51d13'29.9" (J2000.0, mean residuals 
of 0.2") and the magnitude was estimated to be 21.0, assuming R mags for the 
reference stars from UCAC-4.

The message may be cited.

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

The field of GRB 140709A (Hagen et al. GCNC  16546) was observed in i'-band
with  the 10.4m GTC telescope in two epochs centered on July 9.12955 and
10.10966 UT (1.9 and 25.4 hours post burst). Comparison between those two
epochs reveals that the optical candidate reported by Castro-Tirado et al.
(GCNC 16554) has faded by ~0.7 mags (from i'~21.3 to 22.0, both in AB),
implying a shallow decay index of ~0.2.  A similar decay is measured in
z'-band.

[GCN OPS NOTE(12jul14): Per author's request, AG was added to the author list.]

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 140709A (Hagen, et al., GCN 16546
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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 from 2014/07 9.17 to 2014/07 9.46 UTC (2.76 to
9.93 hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 4.98 hours exposure
in the r and i bands and 2.09 hours exposure in the Z, Y, J, and H bands
and again from 2014/07 10.17 to 2014/07 10.42 UTC (26.77 to 32.87 hours
after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 4.27 hours exposure in the r
and i bands and 1.79 hours exposure in the Z, Y, J, and H bands.

We detect the afterglow candidate reported by Castro-Tirado et al. (GCN
16554
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 ; also Masi, et al., GCN 16559
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 ; Castro-Tirado, et al., GCN 16564
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 ) in
both epochs, adding a deeper integration for our first epoch as compared to
our initial report (Butler, et al., GCN 16547
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 ).  Relative to 2MASS and
using the RATIR zero-points, we find:

     7/09                   7/10
  r  24.28 +/- 0.45   23.85 +/- 0.31
  i  23.05 +/- 0.16   23.28 +/- 0.20
  Z >22.92             >22.68
  Y >22.40             >22.33
  J >22.30             >22.27
  H >21.94             >21.85

These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic
extinction in the direction of the GRB.  Upper limits are 3-sigma.  We
cannot reliably confirm fading in this source.  We note that another RATIR
source outside of the Swift XRT error region (see, GCN 16547
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 ) does not
appear to fade and is not likely to be the afterglow to GRB 140709A.

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

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

We observed the position of GRB 140709A (GCN 16546
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 ) at 15 GHz with
the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI-LA) starting on 2014 July 11.93 to
12.10 UT, corresponding to 2.88 days post-burst. We have detected a
possible radio counterpart consistent with the UVOT-enhanced XRT position
(GCN 16548
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 ) with a preliminary flux of 0.35 +/- 0.06 mJy. However, this
source is blended with the nearby NVSS source 201841+511349 lying
at an angular distance of 27.5 arcseconds. The angular resolution of AMI
is ~30 arcseconds. The flux was calculated by first subtracting the contribution
from the NVSS source.
Earlier AMI observations an 2014 July 9.05 to 9.14 UT and July 10.04 to 10.2,
corresponding to <5 minutes and 1 day post-burst, did not detect a radio source
at the position of the GRB with 3 sigma upper limits of 0.30 and 0.21 mJy, respectively.
Further AMI monitoring is planned. We thank the AMI staff for scheduling these observations.

V.V.Golovnya (Main Astro Obs, Kyiv)report: 
We have undertaken the review of the sky area in vicinity of 
GRB 140709A (P.A. Evans et al. GCN Circ.16548
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 ) on 
astronegatives, collected in Ukrainian NAS Main astronomical 
observatory plate archive (1976-1996). All the plates with 
the possible object appearance are digitized using Microtek 
ScanMaker 9800XL TMA and Epson Expression 10000XL flatbed 
scanners and have been placed into Golosiiv Plate Archive 
database DBGPA with open access to them.
 	The list of plates is given in the table:
YYYYMMDD/TimeUT	--Plates--	Exp.	LimMag	Star USNOA2 
19840822/200650	GUA040C000445A	12.5	16.10	1350-12048943
19840825/201235	GUA040C000458A	16.0	16.95	1350-12054971
19840905/193326	GUA040C000485A	22.5	16.20	1350-12052525
19850711/224521	GUA040C000678A	16.0	16.75	1350-12052468
19850711/230927	GUA040C000679A	16.0	16.95	1350-12054971
Plates: ���the plates archive identifier of DWA (D/F=400/2000, 
GUA040C, M=103"/mm) of the Ukrainian NAS Main Astro obs.
        (Marsden's number - 83) the plate number [1].
Exp.   - Duration of the maximum exposure (minutes). 
LimM   - Limited V mag, derived in the 12 minutes area around 
       the location given in P.A. Evans et al. GCN Circ.16548
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 : 
       RA(J2000)= 20h 18m 38.96s, Dec(J2000)= +51d 13' 29.9"
Star USNOA2 - Comparison star.
  The preview images of 5 areas together with  
the 12x12 min.of arc area from SkyMap can be found in  
http://gua.db.ukr-vo.org/img/grb/140709A/index.html
The images with full resolution are available via e-mail on 
demand.
References: 
1.L.Pakuliak DATABASE of GOLOSIIV PLATE ARCHIVE (DBGPA V2.0),
http://gua.db.ukr-vo.org