TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 22953 SUBJECT: GRB 180715A: Swift-XRT observations DATE: 18/07/16 23:29:17 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester J.A. Kennea (PSU), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), S.L. Gibson (U. Leicester), Z. Liu (NAOC / U. Leicester), J.P. Osborne (U. Leicester), A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), D.N. Burrows (PSU) and T. N. Ukwatta (LANL) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 14 ks of Photon Counting (PC) mode XRT data for the Swift/BAT-detected burst GRB 180715A (Ukwatta et al. GCN Circ. 22951), collected between T0+11.0 ks and T0+67.7 ks. Five uncatalogued X-ray sources have been detected consistent with being within 296 arcsec of the Swift/BAT position, however none of them is above the RASS limit or shows definitive signs of fading. Therefore, at the present time we cannot identify which, if any, is the afterglow. The 3-sigma upper limit at the BAT position is 9.5x10^-4 ct/sec. Details of these sources are given below: Source 5: RA (J2000.0): 235.1362 = 15:40:32.68 Dec (J2000.0): -0.9559 = -00:57:21.2 Error: 6.1 arcsec (radius, 90% conf.) Count-rate: (5.4 [+2.7, -2.1])e-4 ct s^-1 Distance: 266 arcsec from Swift/BAT position. Source 7: RA (J2000.0): 235.0967 = 15:40:23.21 Dec (J2000.0): -0.9760 = -00:58:33.6 Error: 5.4 arcsec (radius, 90% conf.) Count-rate: (7.4 [+3.2, -2.6])e-4 ct s^-1 Distance: 210 arcsec from Swift/BAT position. Source 8: RA (J2000.0): 235.1256 = 15:40:30.15 Dec (J2000.0): -0.8791 = -00:52:44.8 Error: 6.5 arcsec (radius, 90% conf.) Count-rate: (8.2 [+3.3, -2.7])e-4 ct s^-1 Distance: 261 arcsec from Swift/BAT position. Flux: (5.6 [+2.3, -1.8])e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (observed, 0.3-10 keV) Source 10: RA (J2000.0): 234.9980 = 15:39:59.51 Dec (J2000.0): -0.9504 = -00:57:01.5 Error: 5.0 arcsec (radius, 90% conf.) Count-rate: (1.85 [+0.46, -0.42])e-3 ct s^-1 Distance: 272 arcsec from Swift/BAT position. Flux: (8.9 [+2.2, -2.0])e-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (observed, 0.3-10 keV) Source 11: RA (J2000.0): 235.0291 = 15:40:6.98 Dec (J2000.0): -0.9196 = -00:55:10.6 Error: 10.7 arcsec (radius, 90% conf.) Count-rate: (4.4 [+2.5, -2.0])e-4 ct s^-1 Distance: 144 arcsec from Swift/BAT position. Ten uncatalogued sources were also detected too far from the GRB position to be likely afterglow candidates. The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis of the XRT observations, including a position-specific upper limit calculator, are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/ToO_GRBs/00848048. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.