GRB 210504A
GCN Circular 30027
Subject
GRB 210504A: LCO Optical Afterglow Detection
Date
2021-05-16T17:00:44Z (4 years ago)
From
Robert Strausbaugh at U. of the Virgin Islands <robert.strausbaugh@uvi.edu>
R. Strausbaugh (U. of the Virgin Islands), A. Cucchiara (U. of the Virgin Islands/College of Marin) report on behalf of a larger collaboration:
We observed Swift GRB 210504A (Beardmore, et al., GCN 29929) with the LCO 1-m Sinistro instrument at the South African Astronomical Observatory site, on May 5, from 18:49 to 18:56 UT (corresponding to 4.92 to 5.03 hours from the GRB trigger time) with the Bessel R filter.
We performed a series of 3x180s exposures in R. We detect an uncatalogued optical source in the coadded images consistent with the UVOT position (Breeveld, et al., GCN 29933). Using the USNO-B.1 catalog as reference, we calculate the following magnitude:
R=20.29+/-0.18
These magnitudes are not corrected for galactic extinction.
R.S. is funded by NSF AST grant #1831682
GCN Circular 29946
Subject
GRB 210504A: Lowell Discovery Telescope optical observations
Date
2021-05-05T14:36:48Z (4 years ago)
From
Brendan O'Connor at UMD <oconnorb@umd.edu>
B. O'Connor (UMD, GWU), S.Dichiara (UMD, NASA-GSFC), E. Troja
(UMD, NASA-GSFC), P. Gatkine (Caltech), J.M. Durbak (UMD), S.B. Cenko
(NASA-GSFC), A. Kutyrev (UMD, NASA-GSFC), S. Veilleux (UMD) report:
We observed the field of the GRB 210504A (Beardmore et al., GCN 29929;
Lien et al., GCN 29930) using the Large Monolithic Imager (LMI) on the
4.3m Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) at Happy Jack, AZ. Observations
started on May 5, 2021 at 06:32:14 UT (about 16.6 hours after the Swift
trigger) using the SDSS g, r, i, and z filters. Observations were taken at
an
airmass of 2.5 and seeing of about 1.5".
We detect the optical counterpart identified by the Swift/UVOT
(Breeveld et al., GCN 29933), the NOT (Heintz et al., GCN 29937),
and VLT (Xu et al., GCN 29944). The afterglow has magnitude r ~ 21.66
+/- 0.04 AB mag and i ~ 21.43 +/- 0.03 AB mag.
Magnitudes are calibrated against the PanSTARRS catalog and are not
corrected for Galactic extinction.
We thank the staff of the Lowell Discovery Telescope for assistance
with these observations.
GCN Circular 29944
Subject
GRB 210504A: VLT X-shooter redshift
Date
2021-05-05T07:36:20Z (4 years ago)
From
Alexander Kann at IAA-CSIC <kann@iaa.es>
D. Xu (NAOC), P. Schady (Univ. Bath), K. E. Heintz (Univ. Iceland and
DAWN/NBI), D. B. Malesani (DTU Space), B. Sbarufatti (PSU), G. Pugliese
(API, Univ. Amsterdam), D. A. Perley (LJMU), V. D'Elia (ASI/SSDC,
INAF/OAR), D. A. Kann (HETH/IAA-CSIC), and J. P. U. Fynbo (DAWN/NBI/DTU)
report on behalf of the Stargate consortium:
We observed the optical afterglow (Breeveld & Beardmore, GCN 29933;
Heintz et al., GCN 29937) of GRB 210504A (Beardmore et al., GCN 29929;
Lien et al., GCN 29330) using the ESO VLT UT3 (Melipal) equipped with
the X-shooter spectrograph. Our spectra cover the wavelength range
3000-21000 AA, and consist of 4 exposures of 1200 s each (8 x 600 s in
the NIR). The observation mid-time was 2021 May 05.06 UT (11.6 hr after
the GRB).
In a 60 s image taken with the acquisition camera on May 05.02 UT, we
detect the optical afterglow, for which we measure an AB magnitude r' =
21.11 +- 0.04 mag (calibrated against nearby stars from the Pan-STARRS
catalog).
We clearly detect continuum over the wavelength range of the entire
spectrum. A trough is visible around 3740 AA, which we identify as due
to H I. From the detection of several absorption features, which we
interpret as due to Si II, C II, C IV, Fe II, Al II, Mg II, among
others, as well as the Lyman forest, we infer a redshift z = 2.077.
We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Paranal, in
particular Steffen Mieske, Ditte Slumstrup and Diego Parraguez.
GCN Circular 29942
Subject
GRB 210504A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
Date
2021-05-05T04:52:24Z (4 years ago)
From
Phil Evans at U of Leicester <pae9@leicester.ac.uk>
D.N. Burrows (PSU), J. D. Gropp (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), J.P. Osborne
(U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), T.
Sbarrato (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) and A.P. Beardmore report
on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:
We have analysed 6.7 ks of XRT data for GRB 210504A (Beardmore et al.
GCN Circ. 29929), from 218 s to 24.9 ks after the BAT trigger. The
data comprise 146 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode with the remainder in
Photon Counting (PC) mode. Using 2804 s of PC mode data and 3 UVOT
images, we find an enhanced XRT position (using the XRT-UVOT alignment
and matching UVOT field sources to the USNO-B1 catalogue): RA, Dec =
222.39118, -30.53345 which is equivalent to:
RA (J2000): 14h 49m 33.88s
Dec(J2000): -30d 32' 00.4"
with an uncertainty of 2.0 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence).
The late-time light curve (from T0+11.6 ks) can be modelled with a
power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.9 (+/-0.8).
A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.00 (+0.13, -0.11). The
best-fitting absorption column is 1.50 (+0.41, -0.20) x 10^21 cm^-2,
consistent with the Galactic value of 1.3 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et
al. 2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 2.11 (+0.25,
-0.16) and a best-fitting absorption column of 1.35 (+0.75, -0.06) x
10^21 cm^-2. The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux
conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.1 x 10^-11 (4.2 x
10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1.
A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column: 1.35 (+0.75, -0.06) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 1.3 x 10^21 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index: 2.11 (+0.25, -0.16)
If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.9, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 1.1 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 3.3 x
10^-14 (4.4 x 10^-14) erg cm^-2 s^-1.
The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/01046782.
This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.
GCN Circular 29939
Subject
GRB 210504A: Swift-BAT refined analysis
Date
2021-05-05T02:27:49Z (4 years ago)
From
Amy Lien at GSFC <amy.y.lien@nasa.gov>
S. Laha (GSFC/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC),
A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), J. R. Cummings (CPI),
H. A. Krimm (NSF), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC),
C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL),
T. Sakamoto (AGU), M. Stamatikos (OSU),
T. N. Ukwatta (LANL) (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 210504A (trigger #1046782)
(Beardmore et al., GCN Circ. 29929