//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12852 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 12/01/18 17:13:53 GMT FROM: Scott Barthelmy at NASA/GSFC O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), A. P. Beardmore (U Leicester), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), M. M. Chester (PSU), C. Guidorzi (U Ferrara), S. T. Holland (CRESST/USRA/GSFC), J. A. Kennea (PSU), N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL), A. Y. Lien (NASA/GSFC/ORAU), V. Mangano (INAF-IASFPA), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. T. O'Brien (U Leicester), K. L. Page (U Leicester), T. Sakamoto (NASA/UMBC), C. J. Saxton (UCL-MSSL), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), M. H. Siegel (PSU), R. L. C. Starling (U Leicester), C. A. Swenson (PSU), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) and B.-B. Zhang (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 17:00:21 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 120118B (trigger=512003). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 124.866, -7.182, which is RA(J2000) = 08h 19m 28s Dec(J2000) = -07d 10' 53" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve shows single peak with a duration of about 30 sec. The peak count rate was ~1700 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~6 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 17:02:13.2 UT, 112.1 seconds after the BAT trigger. No source was detected in the 2.5-s promptly available image. We are waiting for the full dataset to detect and localise the XRT counterpart. UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 115 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 25% of the BAT error circle. The typical 3-sigma upper limit has been about 19.6 mag. The 8'x8' region for the list of sources generated on-board covers 100% of the BAT error circle. The list of sources is typically complete to about 18 mag. No correction has been made for the expected extinction corresponding to E(B-V) of 0.15. Burst Advocate for this burst is O. M. Littlejohns (oml2 AT star.le.ac.uk). 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: 12853 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: MASTER optical observations DATE: 12/01/18 19:39:46 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs O.Gres, O.Chuvalaev,K.Ivanov, V.A.Poleshchuk, S.Yazev, N.M.Budnev Irkutsk State University V. Lipunov, E. Gorbovskoy, V.Kornilov, D.Kuvshinov, A.Belinski, N.Tyurina, N.Shatskiy, P.Balanutsa, V.V.Chazov, A.Kuznetsov, D.Zimnukhov, M. Kornilov, A.Kuznetsov, D.Zimnukhov, M. Kornilov, A.Sankovich, S. Shurpakov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute V.Krushinski, I.Zalozhnich, A. Popov Ural State University, Kourovka E. Sinykov, V.Yurkov, Yu.Sergienko, D.Varda, Blagoveschensk Educational State University, Blagoveschensk A. Tlatov, A.V. Parhomenko, D. Dormidontov, V.Sennik Kislovodsk Solar Station of the Pulkovo Observatory MASTER II robotic telescope (MASTER-Net: http://observ.pereplet.ru) located in Tunka was pointed to the GRB120118A (Littlejohns et al., GCN Circ 12852) 1417 s after notice time and 1437 sec after GRB time at 2012-01-18 17:24:53 UT in two polarizations. On our first (120s exposure) set we haven`t found optical transient within SWIFT error-box . The delay is due to weather conditions. The 5-sigma upper limit has been about 17.0 mag This circular was generated automatically. The message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12854 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: Swift-XRT position DATE: 12/01/18 20:50:33 GMT FROM: Owen Littlejohns at U of Leicester O. M. Littlejohns, K. Page and P. A. Evans (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, fading, uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec = 124.8713, -7.1848 (degrees) which is equivalent to: RA (J2000.0) = 08h 19m 29.12s DEC (J2000.0) = -07d 11' 05.2" with an uncertainty of 2.2 arcsec (radius, 90% containment). This location is 21.4 arcseconds from the BAT onboard position, inside the BAT error circle. This message may be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12856 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: Faulkes Telescope South observations DATE: 12/01/18 23:08:17 GMT FROM: Andrea Melandri at INAF-OAB A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), C. G. Mundell (Liverpool JMU) and C. Guidorzi (U. Ferrara) report on behalf of a large collaboration: The 2-m Faulkes Telescope South responded automatically to Swift GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al. GCN Circ. 12852) with observations beginning at 17:03 UT 2012 January 18th (~2.8 min after the BAT trigger time). Within the XRT error circle (Littlejohns et al. GCN Circ. 12854) we do not find any source in the R and i' filters down to the following (3sigma) limiting magnitudes: Mid time from Total Exp Filter Magnitude trigger (min) (s) ------------------------------------------------- 34.9 720 R > 18.9 39.2 700 i' > 19.1 ------------------------------------------------- Magnitudes have been calibrated from R2 and I nominal values of nearby USNOB1.0 stars. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12857 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 12/01/19 01:33:14 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester J.P. Osborne, A.P. Beardmore, P.A. Evans and M.R. Goad (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Using 1411 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 2 UVOT images for GRB 120118B, 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 = 124.87106, -7.18474 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 08h 19m 29.05s Dec (J2000): -07d 11' 05.1" with an uncertainty of 1.8 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. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12858 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: NOT observations DATE: 12/01/19 01:33:52 GMT FROM: Paul Vreeswijk at U of Iceland Paul Vreeswijk (U. Iceland), Tapio Pursimo (NOT) and Páll Jakobsson (U. Iceland), report on behalf of a larger collaboration: Using ALFOSC on the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) we have obtained Sloan r'- (3 x 600 s) and z'-band (6 x 300 s) imaging of the field of the Swift GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852), starting on 2012 January 18 at 22:48 UT, just under 6 hours after the burst. The observations were performed in non-optimal seeing conditions (~3.5"). We do not detect any object within the XRT error circle (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12854), down to approximate limiting magnitudes of r'>21.2 and z'>19.5 (calibrated against the SDSS catalog). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12862 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 12/01/19 05:11:09 GMT FROM: Margaret Chester at PSU M. M. Chester (PSU) and O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 120118B 116 s after the BAT trigger (Littlejohns et al., GCN Circ. 12852). No optical afterglow consistent with the enhanced XRT position (Osborne et al., GCN Circ. 12857) is detected in the initial UVOT data. 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) exposures and subsequent exposures are: Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag white_FC 116 265 147 >20.9 u_FC 328 577 246 >19.9 white 116 1528 392 >21.6 v 657 1574 113 >19.1 b 583 1504 97 >20.5 u 328 1479 324 >20.2 w1 708 1454 78 >19.0 m2 682 1430 78 >19.9 w2 633 1554 117 >19.8 The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.15 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12868 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B : Lulin Optical limit DATE: 12/01/19 06:45:41 GMT FROM: Kuiyun Huang at ASIAA GRB 120118B : Lulin Optical limit H.Y. Hsiao, Y. Urata (NCU), K.Y. Huang (ASIAA) on behalf the EAFON cooperation: The Lulin 1-m telescope at Taiwan started optical observations on GRB 120118B at 1.8 hours after the BAT trigger (Littlejohns et al. GCN 12852). No optical counterpart was found at the Swift-XRT position (Osborne et al, GCN 12857). Our stacked images indicate 3-sigma limiting magnitudes of g'~21.9, r'~ 21.4 and i'~ 20.9. The calibrations were against two nearby sdss stars. This message can be cited. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12869 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 12/01/19 09:56:37 GMT FROM: Owen Littlejohns at U of Leicester O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester) reports on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 8.6 ks of XRT data for GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al. GCN Circ. 12852), from 96 s to 33.9 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 19 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 9 s were taken while Swift was slewing) with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Osborne et al. (GCN. Circ 12857). The light curve can be modelled with a series of power-law decays. The initial decay index is alpha=3.9 (+0.5, -0.4). At T+312 s the decay flattens to an alpha of -0.25 (+0.24, -0.21) before breaking again at T+2735 s to a final decay with index alpha=0.99 (+/-0.15). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.22 (+0.20, -0.18). The best-fitting absorption column is 2.7 (+/-0.6) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 6.9 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 3.6 x 10^-11 (6.4 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 2.7 (+/-0.6) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 6.9 x 10^20 cm^-2 Excess significance: 6.0 sigma Photon index: 2.22 (+0.20, -0.18) The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00512003. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12870 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: TNG NIR observations DATE: 12/01/19 11:53:27 GMT FROM: Paolo D'Avanzo at INAF-OAB P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) and E. Palazzi (INAF/IASF Bo) report on behalf of the CIBO collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852) with the 3.6m TNG telescope located in the Canary Islands. We secured 40 min H-band and 40 min J-band imaging with the NICS instrument, carried out at a mean t-t0=9.9 hr and t-t0=10.9 hr, respectively. Within the UVOT-enhanced XRT error circle (Osborne et al., GCN 12857), we detect no source down to the limiting magnitudes H > 20.3 and J > 20.5 (Vega, calibrated against the 2MASS catalog). We note however, a hint for the presence of a faint, low-significance object in the H-band image, at the following position (J2000): RA: 08:19:29.02 Dec: -07:11:05.1 (+/- 0.3"), consistent with the UVOT-enhanced XRT position. At present we cannot asses if the source is real or due to a background fluctuation. We acknoledge the TNG staff for their support, in particular Avet Harutyunyan and Gianni Mainella. [GCN OPS NOTE(19jan12): Per author's request, "Gianni Tessicini" was changed to "Gianni Mainella".] //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12873 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B, Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 12/01/19 14:48:38 GMT FROM: Hans Krimm at NASA-GSFC T. Sakamoto (GSFC/UMBC), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), E. E. Fenimore (LANL), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), O. M. Littlejohns (U Leicester), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), M. Stamatikos (OSU), J. Tueller (GSFC), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-61 to T+242 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 120118B (trigger #512003) (Littlejohns, et al., GCN Circ. 12852). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 124.862, -7.178 deg which is RA(J2000) = 08h 19m 26.9s Dec(J2000) = -07d 10' 39.5" with an uncertainty of 1.3 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 40%. The mask-weighted light curve shows a single smooth FRED peak lasting from T-5 sec to T+25 sec. T90 (15-350 keV) is 23.26 +- 4.02 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-1.92 to T+30.51 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 2.08 +- 0.11. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 1.8 +- 0.1 x 10^-6 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T+6.69 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 2.2 +- 0.3 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/512003/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12879 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: RTT150 optical observations DATE: 12/01/19 19:47:54 GMT FROM: Rodion Burenin at IKI, Moscow I. Bikmaev, A.Galeev , N. Sakhibullin (Kazan University), R. Burenin, M. Pavlinsky, R. Sunyaev (IKI), I. Khamitov, Z. Eker (TUG), U. Kiziloglu (METU), E. Gogus (Sabanci Uni.) report: The field of GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852) was observed with Russian-Turkish 1.5-m telescope (RTT150, Bakirlitepe, TUBITAK National Observatory, Turkey) in January 18/19, 2012, during UT 20:29 -- 01:01, i.e. starting approximately 3.5 hours after the burst. A serie of 3 exposures by 900 sec and 10 exposures by 600 sec each in Rc filter was obtained at moderate seeing conditions of 1.8-2.3 arcsec. We found no optical source within the 1.8" enhanced XRT error circle (Osborne et al., GCN 12857) in our combined image at a limiting magnitude of Rc ~ 23.2 mag. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 12900 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: optical upper limit DATE: 12/01/27 09:43:39 GMT FROM: Alina Volnova at SAI MSU A. Volnova (SAI MSU), E. Litvinenko (UBAI), I. Molotov (KIAM), A. Pozanenko (IKI) on behalf of larger GRB follow up collaboration report: We observed the field of the Swift GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCNs 12852, 12854) with ORI-40 telescope of Kitab ISON observatory on Jan. 18 between (UT) 17:39:55 and 18:10:51. We obtained several unfiltered images with exposure of 60 seconds. On the stacked image we do not detect a source reported by D'Avanzo et al. (GCN 12870). The photometry is based on nearby reference stars of USNO-B1.0 (R2 magnitudes): Tstart UT, T0+, Filter, Exposure, OT, UL (3 sigma) (mid, d) (s) 17:39:55 0.03127 none 26x60 n/d 19.5 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 14225 SUBJECT: GRB 120118B: host observations and redshift determination DATE: 13/02/17 01:46:52 GMT FROM: Daniele Malesani at Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Inst Daniele Malesani, Thomas Kruehler (DARK/NBI), Daniel Perley (Caltech), Johan P. U. Fynbo, Dong Xu, Bo Milvang-Jensen (DARK/NBI), Paolo Goldoni (APC, CEA/Irfu), Steve Schulze (PUC and MCSS), report on behalf of the X-shooter GTO GRB collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 120118B (Littlejohns et al., GCN 12852) with the Keck I telescope located on Mauna Kea. Observations were carried out on 2013 Feb 10 (389 days after the GRB), using the LRIS instrument, simultaneously in the g and I bands, for a total exposure time of 750 and 720 s, respectively. Consistent with the latest XRT position (Osborne et al. GCN 12857; see also http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_positions/), we detect a bright, slightly extended object (I = 23.8, Vega), which we consider to be the GRB host galaxy. Its coordinates are (J2000): RA = 08:19:29.047 Dec = -07:11:05.14 This position is consistent with that of the tentative near-infrared counterpart reported by D'Avanzo & Palazzi (GCN 12870). A spectrum of this source was taken on 2013 Feb 13 with the ESO VLT equipped with the X-shooter spectrograph, covering the wavelength range 3000-20500 AA. The seeing was 0.6". In the NIR arm, we detect several emission lines, interpreted as [O III] (5007), [Ne III] (3869), and hints for [O III] (4959) and [O II] (3727) at a common redshift z = 2.943. The weakness/lack of other prominent lines usually seen in GRB host spectra is readily explained by their location in non-favorable parts of the spectrum. In the UVB arm, the host continuum is detected down to ~4750 AA, which corresponds to the onset of the Lyman alpha forest at z = 2.943. At z = 2.94 the host is a fairly luminous galaxy at 2000 Ĺ rest-frame, roughly 0.5 mag brighter than L* at that redshift (e.g. Gabasch et al. 2004, A&A, 421, 41). The properties of this object are akin to those of Lyman-break galaxies. We acknowledge excellent support from the observing staff at Mauna Kea and Paranal, in particular Cedric Ledoux and Andrea Mehner.