TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 8126 SUBJECT: SGR 0501+4516: UKIRT detection of possible infra-red counterpart DATE: 08/08/23 18:22:54 GMT FROM: Nial Tanvir at IofA U.Cambridge N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), W. Varricatt (JACH) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We observed the field of SGR 0501+4516 with UKIRT/UFTI about 2 hours after the first BAT trigger (Holland et al. GCN 8112). We clearly detect a faint point source in the K-band image within the XRT error circle, at a position, relative to 2MASS stars in the field, of: 05:01:06.75 +45:16:34.0 (J2000) with an uncertainty of about 0.5 arcsec. The magnitude of the source is K~18.6 (also calibrated to 2MASS) and there is tentative evidence of variability at the 0.2 mag level between sub-exposures, supporting the possibility that it is the nIR counterpart to the SGR. Further analysis is ongoing.