//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22124 SUBJECT: GRB 171115A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 17/11/15 19:05:41 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL B. Sbarufatti (PSU), D. N. Burrows (PSU), A. Deich (PSU), J.D. Gropp (PSU), J. A. Kennea (PSU), H. A. Krimm (NSF/USRA), S. J. LaPorte (PSU), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), K. L. Page (U Leicester), D. M. Palmer (LANL), M. H. Siegel (PSU) and A. Tohuvavohu (PSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 18:51:20 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 171115A (trigger=790053). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 278.413, +9.128 which is RA(J2000) = 18h 33m 39s Dec(J2000) = +09d 07' 42" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a complex structure with a duration of about 50 sec. The peak count rate was ~1000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~0 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 18:52:30.0 UT, 69.2 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, fading, uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec 278.3885, 9.1250 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 18h 33m 33.23s Dec(J2000) = +09d 07' 29.9" with an uncertainty of 2.3 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 87 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 consistent with the Galactic value of 2.97 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 7.83e-10 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 76 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 100% of the XRT 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 XRT 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 0.23. Burst Advocate for this burst is B. Sbarufatti (bxs60 AT 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: 22125 SUBJECT: GRB 171115A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 17/11/15 22:20:41 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester A.P. Beardmore, P.A. Evans, M.R. Goad and J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team. Using 434 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 1 UVOT images for GRB 171115A, 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 = 278.38820, +9.12510 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 18h 33m 33.17s Dec (J2000): +09d 07' 30.4" with an uncertainty of 2.1 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: 22126 SUBJECT: GRB 171115A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 17/11/16 02:36:25 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), K.L. Page (U. Leicester), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (ASDC), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), D.N. Burrows (PSU), A. Tohuvavohu (PSU), S. J. LaPorte (PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester) and B. Sbarufatti report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 7.5 ks of XRT data for GRB 171115A (Sbarufatti et al. GCN Circ. 22124), from 62 s to 18.4 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 35 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 6 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 Beardmore et al. (GCN Circ. 22125). The light curve can be modelled with an initial power-law decay with an index of alpha=3.81 (+0.26, -0.23), followed by a break at T+289 s to an alpha of 0.46 (+0.10, -0.11). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.92 (+0.33, -0.23). The best-fitting absorption column is 3.3 (+1.7, -0.3) x 10^21 cm^-2, consistent with the Galactic value of 3.0 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 4.0 x 10^-11 (5.7 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 3.3 (+1.7, -0.3) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 3.0 x 10^21 cm^-2 Excess significance: <1.6 sigma Photon index: 1.92 (+0.33, -0.23) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 0.46, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 6.4 x 10^-3 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 2.5 x 10^-13 (3.6 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/00790053. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22127 SUBJECT: GRB 171115A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 17/11/16 04:11:47 GMT FROM: Amy Lien at GSFC T. Sakamoto (AGU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), J. R. Cummings (CPI), H. A. Krimm (NSF/USRA), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), B. Sbarufatti (PSU) M. Stamatikos (OSU), T. N. Ukwatta (LANL) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-240 to T+962 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 171115A (trigger #790053) (Sbarufatti et al., GCN Circ. 22124). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 278.392, 9.118 deg which is RA(J2000) = 18h 33m 34.2s Dec(J2000) = +09d 07' 06.4" with an uncertainty of 1.5 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 100%. The mask-weighted light curve shows a weak pulse that starts at ~T-7 s, peaks at ~T-1 s, and ends at ~T+35 s. T90 (15-350 keV) is 38.2 +- 3.4 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-7.38 to T+34.78 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 1.76 +- 0.18. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 6.9 +- 0.8 x 10^-7 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T-2.32 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 0.6 +- 0.1 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/790053/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22128 SUBJECT: GRB 171115A: MITSuME Akeno optical upper limits DATE: 17/11/16 12:32:45 GMT FROM: Katsuhiro L. Murata at Nagoya U K. Morita, R. Itoh, K. L. Murata, T. Yoshii, Y. Tachibana, S. Harita, T. Ozawa, H. Mamiya, K. Shiraishi, Y. Yatsu, and N. Kawai (Tokyo Tech) report on behalf of the MITSuME collaboration: We searched for the optical counterpart of GRB 171115A (B. Sbarufatti et al., GCN Circular #22124) with the optical three color (g', Rc, and Ic) CCD cameras attached to the MITSuME 50 cm telescope of Akeno Observatory, Yamanashi, Japan. The observation started on 2017-11-16 08:54:06 UT. We did not find any new point source within enhanced XRT circle (A.P. Beardmoreet al., GCN Circular #22125) in all three bands. We obtained following limits for the magnitudes. T0+[hour] MID-UT T-EXP[sec] g' Rc Ic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~14.05 09:14:00.87 2220 >19.6 >18.6 >18.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst T-EXP: Total Exposure time We used GSC2.3 catalog for flux calibration. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22129 SUBJECT: GRB 171115A: MITSuME Okayama optical upper limits DATE: 17/11/16 12:36:01 GMT FROM: Katsuhiro L. Murata at Nagoya U K. Morita, R. Itoh, K. L. Murata, T. Yoshii, Y. Tachibana, S. Harita, T. Ozawa, H. Mamiya, K. Shiraishi, Y. Yatsu, and N. Kawai (Tokyo Tech) report on behalf of the MITSuME collaboration: We searched for the optical counterpart of GRB 171115A (B. Sbarufatti et al., GCN Circular #22124) with the optical three color (g', Rc, and Ic) CCD cameras attached to the MITSuME 50 cm telescope of Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Japan. The observation started on 2017-11-16 08:59:56 UT. We did not find any new point source within enhanced XRT circle (A.P. Beardmoreet al., GCN Circular #22125) in all three bands. We obtained following limits for the magnitudes. T0+[hour] MID-UT T-EXP[sec] g' Rc Ic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~14.15 09:52:13.20 5100 >18.1 >17.5 >17.8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T0+ : Elapsed time after the burst T-EXP: Total Exposure time We used GSC2.3 catalog for flux calibration. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22130 SUBJECT: GRB 171115A: RATIR Optical and NIR Observations DATE: 17/11/16 15:12:51 GMT FROM: Nat Butler at Az State U Nat Butler (ASU), Alan M. Watson (UNAM), Alexander Kutyrev (GSFC), William H. Lee (UNAM), Michael G. Richer (UNAM), Ori Fox (STScI), J. Xavier Prochaska (UCSC), Josh Bloom (UCB), Antonino Cucchiara (UVI), Eleonora Troja (GSFC), Owen Littlejohns (ASU), Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz (UCSC), Jesús González (UNAM), Carlos Román-Zúñiga (UNAM), Harvey Moseley (GSFC), John Capone (UMD), V. Zach Golkhou (U. Wash.), and Vicki Toy (UMD) report: We observed the field of GRB 171115A (Sbarufatti, et al., GCN 22124) with the Reionization and Transients Infrared Camera (RATIR; www.ratir.org) on the 1.5m Harold Johnson Telescope at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on Sierra San Pedro Mártir from 2017/11 16.08 to 2017/11 16.15 UTC (7.14 to 8.66 hours after the BAT trigger), obtaining a total of 1.07 hours exposure in the r and i bands and 0.38 hours exposure in the Z, Y, J, and H bands. For a source within the Swift-XRT error circle (Beardmore, et al., GCN 22125), in comparison with the USNO-B1 and 2MASS catalogs, we obtain the following upper limits (3-sigma): r > 23.05 i > 23.19 Z > 21.86 Y > 21.66 J > 21.13 H > 20.71 These magnitudes are in the AB system and are not corrected for Galactic extinction in the direction of the GRB. We thank the staff of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro Mártir.