TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 19806 SUBJECT: GRB 160816A: Swift-XRT afterglow detection DATE: 16/08/17 07:10:35 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester J.A. Kennea (PSU), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), S.L. Gibson (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Maselli (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB) and P.A. Evans (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: Swift-XRT has performed follow-up observations of the Fermi/LAT-detected burst GRB 160816A (Racusin et al. GCN Circ. 19802), collecting 1.6 ks of Photon Counting (PC) mode data between T0+25.2 ks and T0+31.8 ks. An uncatalogued X-ray source is detected and is above the RASS limit, and is therefore likely the GRB afterglow. The position of this source is RA, Dec=322.4108, +37.1324 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 21:29:38.59 Dec(J2000): +37:07:56.6 with an uncertainty of 3.8 arcsec (radius, 90% confidence). This position is 3.8 arcmin from the Fermi/LAT position. The light curve is consistent with a constant source of mean count rate 7.8e-02 ct/sec. A power-law fit gives an index of 1.5 (+1.8, -1.7). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.7 (+0.6, -0.3). The best-fitting absorption column is 2.97 (+3.55, -0.16) x 10^21 cm^-2, consistent with the Galactic value of 2.8 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 4.5 x 10^-11 (5.8 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 2.97 (+3.55, -0.16) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 2.8 x 10^21 cm^-2 Excess significance: <1.6 sigma Photon index: 1.7 (+0.6, -0.3) The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis of the likely afterglow are at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ToO_GRBs/00020685/index_1.php. The results of the full analysis of the XRT observations are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ToO_GRBs/00020685. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.