TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  15542
SUBJECT: GRB 131128A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
DATE:    13/11/29 07:22:04 GMT
FROM:    Phil Evans at U of Leicester  <pae9@leicester.ac.uk>

P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), B.P. Gompertz (U. Leicester), A. Melandri
(INAF-OAB), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), D.N.
Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), V. Mangano (PSU), J.P. Osborne (U.
Leicester) and E. Sonbas report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 7.6 ks of XRT data for GRB 131128A (Sonbas  et al. GCN
Circ. 15533),  from 72 s to 40.8 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 7 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (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 15538).

The light curve can be modelled with a series of power-law decays. The
initial decay index is alpha=1.9 (+/-0.4). At T+423 s  the decay
flattens to an alpha of 0.38 (+0.08, -0.14) before breaking again at
T+16.0 ks to a final decay with index alpha=1.7 (+0.7, -0.6).

A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.53 (+0.18, -0.12). The
best-fitting absorption column is  5.8 (+4.6, -0.7) x 10^20 cm^-2,
consistent with the Galactic value of 5.2 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 4.6 x 10^-11 (5.0 x
10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     5.8 (+4.6, -0.7) x 10^20 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 5.2 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: <1.6 sigma
Photon index:	     1.53 (+0.18, -0.12)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.7, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 3.8 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.7 x
10^-13 (1.9 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/00579683.

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