//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11461 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Swift detection of a short hard burst DATE: 10/12/19 02:50:58 GMT FROM: Jamie A. Kennea at PSU/Swift-XRT J. M. Gelbord (PSU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), M. M. Chester (PSU), P. A. Evans (U Leicester), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), D. Grupe (PSU), E. A. Hoversten (PSU), J. A. Kennea (PSU), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), C. J. Saxton (UCL-MSSL) and M. H. Siegel (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 02:31:29 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 101219A (trigger=440606). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 74.616, -2.534 which is RA(J2000) = 04h 58m 28s Dec(J2000) = -02d 32' 01" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows a single spike with a duration of about 0.3 sec. The peak count rate was ~24000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at 0.0 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 02:32:30.0 UT, 60.5 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a fading, uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec 74.5854, -2.5395 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 04h 58m 20.49s Dec(J2000) = -02d 32' 22.4" with an uncertainty of 2.3 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 111 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. A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (4.87 x 10^20 cm^-2, Kalberla et al. 2005), with an excess column of 2.8 (+1.83/-1.57) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 250 seconds with the U filter starting 278 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 18.0 mag. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.06. Burst Advocate for this burst is J. M. Gelbord (jgelbord AT astro.psu.edu). 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.) //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11462 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: ROTSE-III Optical Limits DATE: 10/12/19 03:05:57 GMT FROM: Shashi Bhushan Pandey at ROTSE S. B. Pandey (U Mich), W. Zheng (U Mich) and W. Rujopakarn (Steward), report on behalf of the ROTSE collaboration: ROTSE-IIIc, located at the H.E.S.S. site at Mt. Gamsberg, Namibia, responded to GRB 101219A (Swift trigger 440606; Gelbord J. M., GCN 11461), producing images beginning 8.1 s after the GCN notice time. An automated response took the first image at 02:31:48.0 UT, 12.0 s after the burst, under fair conditions. We took 10 5-sec, 10 20-sec and 10 60-sec exposures. These unfiltered images are calibrated relative to USNO A2.0 (R). Imaging is on going. Comparison to the DSS (second epoch) reveals no new sources within the 3-sigma Swift/BAT error circle or the XRT error circle, for both single images and coadding into sets of 10. Individual images have limiting magnitudes ranging from 15.7-17.2; we set the following specific limits. start UT end UT t_exp(s) mlim t_start-tGRB(s) Coadd? -------------------------------------------------------------------- 02:31:48.0 02:31:53.0 5 15.7 12.0 N 02:31:48.0 02:33:04.1 76 17.2 90.0 Y //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11463 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: REM optical and NIR observations DATE: 10/12/19 03:32:53 GMT FROM: Stefano Covino at Brera Astronomical Observatory S. Covino (INAF/Brera) and E. Palazzi (IASF-Bo) on behalf of the REM team report: The robotic 60-cm REM telescope located at La Silla (Chile) observed automatically the field of GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al. GCN 11461) with the ROSS optical and REMIR near-infrared cameras in imaging mode. The first observations have been performed within about 30s from the GRB time. No counterpart down to the 2MASS limit could be singled out in the XRT error circle in the NIR frames, while the proximity of the bright Moon (~30 deg) prevented deep optical observations. Further observations are in progress. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11464 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Gemini-South observations DATE: 10/12/19 04:13:33 GMT FROM: Daniel Perley at U.C. Berkeley D. A. Perley (UC Berkeley), E. Berger (Harvard), S.B. Cenko (UC Berkeley), R. Chornock (Harvard), A. J. Levan (Warwick), N. Tanvir (Leicester) report: We observed the position of GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) with GMOS-S on the Gemini South telescope in the i-band starting at 2010 Dec 19 13:14:04 UT (43 min after the burst). In a stack of the first five 180-sec exposures we detect a faint object within the XRT error circle (GCN #11461) at coordinates (J2000): RA = 04:58:20.478 DEC = -02:32:22.17 The object is also weakly detected in a single r-band frame, and appears to be mildly extended in the i-band images. Further observations and analysis are underway. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11465 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: SARA-N Upper Limit DATE: 10/12/19 04:41:10 GMT FROM: Adria C. Updike at Clemson U Adria C. Updike (CRESST/UMD/NASA GSFC), Dieter H. Hartmann (Clemson University), and Martha A. Leake (Valdosta State University) report: We observed the field of GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) with the SARA-North 0.9m telescope at KPNO beginning 38 minutes after the trigger under good conditions and high airmass. We do not detect the afterglow candidate (Perley et al., GCN 11464) down to a limiting magnitude of 19.5 in the R band (420 seconds of exposure beginning 38 minutes after trigger) and 18.6 in the I band (300 seconds of exposure beginning 45 minutes after trigger) as compared to the USNO B1.0 catalog. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11466 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A - NOT observation - upper limit DATE: 10/12/19 05:21:51 GMT FROM: Steve Schulse at U. of Iceland S. Schulze (U Iceland), D. Malesani (DARK Cosmology Centre), D. Xu (Weizmann Institute) I. Ilyin (AIP Potsdam), P. Jakobsson (U Iceland) on behalf of a larger collaboration report: We observed the field of GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) with StanCAM mounted on the NOT telescope on La Palma, Canary Islands (Spain) starting at 3:34 UT (~1 hour after the trigger) and ending 4:01:21 UT. We took seven images in R band with an exposure time of 150 seconds each. The stacked image does not reveal any new source within the XRT error circle (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461), and in particular at the location of the optical object identified by Perley et al. (GCN 11464). We derive a limiting magnitude of 21 in R-band calibrated against USNO stars with a mid-exposure time of 1.27 hours after the trigger. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11467 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 10/12/19 06:11:32 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), J. M. Gelbord (PSU), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (GSFC/UMBC), M. Stamatikos (OSU), J. Tueller (GSFC), T. N. Ukwatta (GWU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-60 to T+243 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of the BAT short hard burst GRB 101219A (trigger #440606) (Gelbord, et al., GCN Circ. 11461). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 74.586, -2.527 deg which is RA(J2000) = 04h 58m 20.7s Dec(J2000) = -02d 31' 37.1" with an uncertainty of 1.0 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 94%. The mask-weighted light curve shows two overlapping peaks starting at ~T-0.1 sec and ending at ~T+0.6 sec. At the 2-sigma confidence level, there may be extended emission out to T+30 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 0.6 +- 0.2 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-0.0 to T+1.1 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 0.63 +- 0.09. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 4.6 +- 0.3 x 10^-7 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T-0.04 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 4.1 +- 0.2 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/440606/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11468 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Further Gemini-South Imaging DATE: 10/12/19 11:52:37 GMT FROM: S. Bradley Cenko at Caltech S. B. Cenko (UC Berkeley), A. J. Levan (Warwick), R. Chornock, E. Berger (Harvard), D. A. Perley, J. S. Bloom (UC Berkeley), and N. Tanvir (Leicester) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We have obtained a second series of i'-band imaging (Perley et al., GCN 11464) of the field of the short-hard GRB101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph mounted on the 8-m Gemini South telescope. Observations consisted of 12 x 180 s exposures beginning at 6:55 UT (~ 4.2 hours after the burst trigger). Digital subtraction of the two epochs reveals no transient emission within or around the XRT error circle. Using several common SDSS objects for calibration, we place an upper limit of i' > 24.5 mag. Similarly, aperture photometry reveals the source mentioned by Perley et al. (GCN 11464), which is clearly extended in our images, remains approximately constant over this time period, with an i-band magnitude of ~ 23.5. We further note that no sources are present in any filter in the SDSS pre-explosion imaging of the field in the immediate environment of the XRT error circle. The limits, however, would not be sufficient to detect the extended source mentioned above. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11469 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Magellan NIR observations DATE: 10/12/19 12:04:51 GMT FROM: Ryan Chornock at Harvard R. Chornock, W. Fong, E. Berger (Harvard), and E. Persson (Carnegie) report: We observed the field of the short-hard burst GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) with FourStar on the 6.5-m Magellan Baade telescope. Observations in the J band began at 03:43:20 UT, 1.2 hours after the BAT trigger time. The source in the XRT error circle found by Perley et al. (GCN 11464) is clearly detected in our images, at a preliminary magnitude of J=21.6 in comparison to 2MASS stars in the field. The object is clearly extended in our images (seeing <0.5"), so it is likely the host galaxy and is not dominated by an afterglow, consistent with the non-detection of fading in the optical (Cenko et al., GCN 11468). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11470 SUBJECT: Konus-Wind observation of short hard GRB 101219A DATE: 10/12/19 12:41:07 GMT FROM: Dmitry Frederiks at Ioffe Institute S. Golenetskii, R.Aptekar, D. Frederiks, E. Mazets, V. Pal'shin, P. Oleynik, M. Ulanov, D. Svinkin, and T. Cline on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report: The short hard GRB 101219A, (Swift/BAT trigger=440606: Gelbord, et al., GCN 11461; Krimm et.al, GCN 11467) triggered Konus-Wind at T0=09094.716s UT (02:31:34.716) The total duration of the burst is ~0.6 s. The emission is seen up to 10 MeV. The Konus-Wind light curve of this GRB is available at http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB101219_T09094/ As observed by Konus-Wind, the burst had a fluence of (3.6 ± 0.5)x10-6 erg/cm2, and a 16-ms peak flux, measured from T0+0.032s, of (2.8 ± 0.8)x10-5 erg/cm2/s (both in the 20 keV - 10 MeV energy range). The time-integrated spectrum of the major part of the burst (from T0 to T0+0.256 s) is best fit in the 20 keV - 10 MeV range by a power law with exponential cutoff model, for which alpha = -0.22 (-0.25, +0.30), and Ep = 490(-79, +103) keV, chi2 = 27.6/30 dof. The spectrum at the maximum count rate (measured from T0 to T0+0.064 s) is best fit in the 20 keV - 10 MeV range by a power law with exponential cutoff model, for which alpha = -0.05 (-0.45, +0.60), and Ep = 426(-100, +173) keV, chi2 = 9/10 dof. All the quoted results are preliminary. All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11471 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: GROND Upper limits DATE: 10/12/19 13:26:42 GMT FROM: Andrea Rossi at TLS Tautenburg F. Olivares E. (MPE Garching), A. Rossi (TLS Tautenburg), J. Greiner, J. Elliott (both MPE Garching) and D. A. Kann (TLS Tautenburg) report on behalf of the GROND team: We observed the field of GRB 101219A (Swift trigger 440606; Gelbord et al., GCN #11461) simultaneously in g'r'i'z'JHK with GROND (Greiner et al. 2008, PASP 120, 405) mounted at the 2.2 m MPI/ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory (Chile). Observations started at 03:52 UT on December 19, 1.36 hours after the GRB, and have total exposure of 1501 s in g'r'i'z' and 1200 s in JHK. They were performed at an average seeing of 0.8" and at an average airmass of 1.13. We do not detect a source within the XRT error circle reported by Gelbord (GCN #11461) down to the following 3 sigma upper limits (all in AB): g' > 23.4 r' > 23.6 i' > 23.1 z' > 23.2 J > 22.2 H > 21.8 and K > 20.2 The given limits are derived based on calibrating the images against SDSS and 2MASS field stars and are not corrected for the Galactic foreground extinction corresponding to a reddening of E(B-V)=0.06 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). Our limits are not deep enough to detect the host galaxy candidate found in the optical (Perley et al., GCN 11464, Cenko et al., GCN 11468) and the NIR (Chornock et al., GCN 11469). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11472 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 10/12/19 13:49:14 GMT FROM: Paul Kuin at MSSL N.P.M. Kuin (MSSL/UCL) and J.M. Gelbord (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 101219A 67 s after the BAT trigger (Gelbord et al., GCN Circ. 11461). No optical afterglow consistent with the XRT position is detected in the initial UVOT exposures. Preliminary 3-sigma upper limits using the UVOT photometric system (Poole et al. 2008, MNRAS, 383, 627) for the first finding chart (FC) exposure and subsequent exposures are: Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag white_FC 67 217 147 >20.8 u_FC 279 528 246 >19.9 white 67 5557 467 >21.4 v 608 5968 432 >19.7 b 534 6724 369 >20.3 u 279 6582 658 >20.5 w1 658 6377 432 >21.0 m2 632 6172 432 >20.2 w2 584 5763 432 >20.9 The values quoted above are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.06 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11474 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 10/12/19 21:10:08 GMT FROM: Jonathan Gelbord at PSU/Swift J.M. Gelbord (PSU) and D. Grupe (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 5.8 ks of XRT data for GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al. GCN Circ. 11461), from 70 s to 18.0 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 13 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The light curve after 200s can be modelled as a power-law decay. The decay index is alpha=-1.8 (+/-0.2). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.78 (+0.25, -0.23). The best-fitting absorption column is 3.1 (+1.1, -0.9) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 4.87 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 4.9 x 10^-11 (6.9 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 3.1 (+1.1, -0.9) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 4.9 x 10^20 cm^-2 Excess significance: 4.8 sigma Photon index: 1.78 (+0.25, -0.23) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 1.8, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 2 x 10^-5 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 7.5 x 10^-16 (1.1 x 10^-15) erg cm^-2 s^-1. The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00440606. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11476 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: IAC80 optical observations DATE: 10/12/19 22:10:59 GMT FROM: Javier Gorosabel at IAA-CSIC J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC, Granada), M. Visus (IAC, Obs Teide, Tenerife), J. Garcia (IAC, Obs Teide, Tenerife), A. de Ugarte Postigo (DARK/NBI, Copenhagen), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We have observed the field of GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) with the IAC80 telescope located at the Observatory of Teide, Tenerife. The observations were carried out in the R and I bands on Dec 19.11291-19.15778 UT (starting 11.1 minutes after the GRB). No object is detected within the XRT error circle down to R~21.5 and I~20.5 (calibration based on USNO-A2)." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11479 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: MITSuME Ishigakijima Optical upper limits DATE: 10/12/20 04:23:45 GMT FROM: Daisuke Kuroda at OAO/NAOJ D. Kuroda (OAO, NAOJ), H. Hanayama, T. Miyaji, J. Watanabe (IAO, NAOJ), K. Yanagisawa (OAO, NAOJ), M. Yoshida (Hiroshima), K. Ohta (Kyoto) and N. Kawai(Tokyo Tech) report on behalf of the MITSuME collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) with the optical three color (g', Rc and Ic) CCD camera attached to the Murikabushi 1m telescope of Ishigakijima Astronomical Observatory. The observation started on 2010-12-19 10:30:50 UT (~8.0 h after the trigger). We did not find any new point source within the XRT error circle (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) in all the three bands. Three sigma upper limits of the OT are listed below. We used SDSS catalog for flux calibration. T0+[day] MID-UT T-EXP[sec] g' Rc Ic ------------------------------------------------------ 0.33651 10:36:04 480.0 >19.1 >19.1 >18.7 0.46387 13:39:28 1500.0 >20.9 >20.7 >20.0 ------------------------------------------------------ T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst [day] T-EXP: Total Exposure time [sec] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11483 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Chandra Observations DATE: 10/12/23 22:13:13 GMT FROM: Edo Berger at Harvard E. Berger (Harvard) reports on behalf of a larger collaboration: "We observed the field of the short GRB 101219A (GCN 11467) with ACIS-S on the Chandra X-ray Observatory starting on 2010 December 23.05 UT (3.942 days after the burst) for a total of 19.8 ksec. We do not detect any source within the XRT error circle (GCN 11461), or in coincidence with the proposed host galaxy (GCNs 11464, 11468, 11469). We place a limit of about 3e-15 erg/cm^2/s (3-sigma) on the flux of the X-ray afterglow at a mean time of 351.6 ksec after the burst, indicating a decline rate of alpha_X<-1.1. We thank Harvey Tananbaum and the CXO scheduling staff (in particular Ping Zhao) for rapidly approving and executing this observation." [GCN OPS NOTE(23dec10): Per author's request, the "3.942 hours" was changed to "3.942 days".] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 11518 SUBJECT: GRB 101219A: Gemini-North host redshift DATE: 11/01/04 16:34:27 GMT FROM: Ryan Chornock at Harvard R. Chornock and E. Berger (Harvard) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We obtained 4x1800s of spectroscopy of the host galaxy candidate (Perley et al., GCN 11464; Cenko et al., GCN 11468; Chornock et al., GCN 11469) found in the XRT error circle of the short-hard GRB 101219A (Gelbord et al., GCN 11461) using GMOS on Gemini-North starting on January 2.25 UT. Observations were obtained with the R400 grating, covering 5890-10100 Angstroms in nod-and-shuffle mode. The galaxy spectrum exhibits emission lines due to [O II] 3727 Angs and [O III] 5007 Angs at a redshift of 0.718.