TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 18834 SUBJECT: LIGO/Virgo G211117: Further Swift-XRT sources DATE: 16/01/06 09:33:46 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea (PSU), S.D. Barthelmy (NASA/GSFC), D.N. Burrows (PSU), S. Campana (INAF-OAB), S.B. Cenko (NASA/GSFC), N. Gehrels (NASA/GSFC), P. Giommi (ASI), F.E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), J.A. Nousek (PSU), P.T. O'Brien (U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), D.M. Palmer (LANL), M. Perri (ASDC), J.L. Racusin (NASA/GSFC), M.H. Siegel (PSU), G. Tagliaferri (INAF-OAB) report on behalf of the Swift team: Swift has performed a series of 76 observations of galaxies (from the GWGC catalogue) within the aLIGO error region for the aLIGO trigger G211117, using the 'bayestar' GW localisation map. The observations currently span from 140 ks to 914 ks after the aLIGO trigger, and cover 8.6 sq degrees on the sky (corrected for overlaps). Since the last Swift GCN, we have detected 2 X-ray sources, these are either new detections, or have been given a higher 'rank' than in the last circular. Each source is assigned a rank of 1-4 which describes how likely it is to be related to the GW trigger, with 1 being the most likely and 4 being the least likely. The ranks are described at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ranks.php. We have found: * 0 sources of rank 1 * 0 sources of rank 2 * 1 source of rank 3 * 1 source of rank 4 In addition, we observed the location of the source PS15dqa (from Smartt et al., GCN Circ. 18824), an optical transient in NGC 1156 at a distance of just 7 Mpc. No X-ray emission was detected at the location of PS15dqa to a 3-sigma upper limit of 4.1e-3 ct/sec, corresponding to a flux of 1.8e-13 erg/cm^2/s. We assumed a power-law spectrum with NH=3e20 cm^2, and photon index (Gamma)=1.7 RANK 3 sources ============== These are uncatalogued X-ray sources, however they are not brighter than previous upper limits, so do not stand out as likely counterparts to the GW trigger. Source 53: ============= RA: 44.9257 ( = 02h 59m 42.17s) J2000 Dec: +25.2129 ( = +25d 12' 46.4") J2000 Error: +5.8 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 1.5e-03 +/- 7.9e-04 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 6.3e-14 +/- 3.4e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) RASS UL: 3.0e-02 ct/sec, 3-sigma, converted to XRT (0.3-10 keV) so the source is not above the RASS 3-sigma upper limit. There is no evidence for fading. There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. RANK 4 sources ============== These are catalogued X-ray sources, showing no signs of outburst compared to previous observations, so they are not likely to be related to the GW trigger. Source 54: ============= RA: 202.5319 ( = 13h 30m 7.66s) J2000 Dec: -20.9364 ( = -20d 56' 11.0") J2000 Error: +6.0 (arcsec, radius, 90% confidence). Peak Rate: 2.0e-02 +/- 7.3e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Peak Flux: 8.5e-13 +/- 3.1e-13 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) Cat Source: 1SXPS J133007.7-205619 in the 1SXPS catalogue Separation: 8.4" from the XRT source Cat Rate: 1.6e-02 +/- 1.6e-03 ct/sec (0.3-10 keV) Cat Flux: 6.8e-13 +/- 6.9e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.3-10 keV) so the source is 0.5-sigma above the catalogued flux. There is no evidence for fading. There is 1 GWGC galaxy within 200 kpc of the source. A SIMBAD object `[RKV2003] QSO J1330-2056 abs 0.84992' is 5.3" away. There is 1 2MASS object within the source's 3-sigma error radius. This circular is an official product of the Swift team.