//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16027 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 14/03/23 10:40:32 GMT FROM: Eleonora Troja at GSFC E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/UMCP), V. D'Elia (ASDC), H. A. Krimm (CRESST/GSFC/USRA), C. J. Mountford (U Leicester), K. L. Page (U Leicester) and T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) report on behalf of the Swift Team: At 10:23:11 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 140323A (trigger=592916). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 356.888, -79.917 which is RA(J2000) = 23h 47m 33s Dec(J2000) = -79d 55' 00" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a multi-peaked structure with a duration of about 120 sec. The peak count rate was ~6700 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~89 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 10:24:49.4 UT, 97.5 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source with an enhanced position: RA, Dec 356.9593, -79.9050 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 23h 47m 50.23s Dec(J2000) = -79d 54' 17.9" with an uncertainty of 2.2 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 62 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. We cannot determine whether the source is fading at the present time. A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event data gives a column density consistent with the Galactic value of 7.93 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The initial flux in the 0.1 s image was 1.95e-08 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 105 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 0.14. Burst Advocate for this burst is E. Troja (eleonora.troja AT nasa.gov). 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: 16028 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 14/03/23 16:58:18 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 876 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 2 UVOT images for GRB 140323A, 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 = 356.95962, -79.90455 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 23h 47m 50.31s Dec (J2000): -79d 54' 16.4" with an uncertainty of 1.6 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: 16029 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 14/03/23 19:27:36 GMT FROM: Hans Krimm at NASA-GSFC T. Sakamoto (AGU), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), W. H. Baumgartner (GSFC/UMBC), J. R. Cummings (GSFC/UMBC), N. Gehrels (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (GSFC/USRA), A. Y. Lien (NASA/UMBC), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), M. Stamatikos (OSU), E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/UMCP), J. Tueller (GSFC), T. N. Ukwatta (MSU) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-240 to T+693 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 140323A (trigger #592916) (Troja, et al., GCN Circ. 16027). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 356.975, -79.916 deg which is RA(J2000) = 23h 47m 54.1s Dec(J2000) = -79d 54' 57.3" with an uncertainty of 1.0 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 12%. The mask-weighted light curve shows a complex structure. Low-level emission starts around T-60 sec, then the first episode runs from T-20 to T+55 sec, and is a slow rise and fall with multiple sub-peaks superimposed. The second episode has a similar shape and runs from T+60 to T+110 sec, followed by more low-level emission out to T+140 sec. The second episode is spectrally softer than the first. T90 (15-350 keV) is 104.9 +- 2.6 sec (estimated error including systematics). The time-averaged spectrum from T-7.09 to T+117.37 sec is best fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff. This fit gives a photon index 1.35 +- 0.17, and Epeak of 127.1 +- 59.2 keV (chi squared 50.15 for 56 d.o.f.). For this model the total fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 1.6 +- 0.0 x 10^-05 erg/cm2 and the 1-sec peak flux measured from T+6.42 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 6.2 +- 0.7 ph/cm2/sec. A fit to a simple power law gives a photon index of 1.64 +- 0.04 (chi squared 59.02 for 57 d.o.f.). 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/592916/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16030 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 14/03/23 19:47:02 GMT FROM: Massimiliano de Pasquale at MSSL-UCL M. De Pasquale (UCL-MSSL) and E. Troja (NASA/GSFC/UMCP) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 140323A 106 s after the BAT trigger (Troja et al., GCN Circ. 16027). No optical afterglow consistent with the XRT position (Osborne et al. GCN Circ. 16028) is detected in the initial UVOT exposures. 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) exposure and subsequent exposures are: Filter T_start(s) T_stop(s) Exp(s) Mag white_FC 106 256 147 >20.4 u_FC 319 569 246 >19.5 white 106 793 186 >20.5 v 649 5918 216 >19.1 b 574 12334 773 >20.2 u 319 6532 462 >19.9 w1 698 6328 216 >19.5 m2 5923 16174 725 >20.4 w2 798 818 19 >17.9 The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.14 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16031 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: BOOTES-3 optical upper limit. DATE: 14/03/23 20:00:23 GMT FROM: Juan Carlos Tello at IAA-CSIC M. Jelinek, J. C. Tello, R. Cunniffe, S. Jeong, O. Lara-Gil, J. Gorosabel (IAA-CSIC Granada), P. Kubánek (IP-ASCR Praha), M. Wildi (Obs. Vermes), Ph. Yock (Univ. of Auckland), W. H. Allen (Vintage Lane Observatory) and A. J. Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC), on behalf of a larger collaboration, report: "Following the detection of GRB 140323A by Swift (Troja et al., GCNC 16027), the 0.6m YA robotic telescope at the BOOTES-3 astronomical station in Blenheim (New Zealand), responded ito the Swift BAT alert #592916. The co-add of the second set of unfiltered images starting at 10:26:15 UT and ending at 10:35:02 UT (i.e. 184-710 s postburst) reveals no optical afterglow at the enhanced Swift XRT position (Osborne et al., GCNC 16028) down to 18.5 mag. A first set only provides a shallower limit." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16032 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Fermi GBM observation DATE: 14/03/23 20:34:07 GMT FROM: Hoi-Fung Yu at MPE Subject: GRB 140323A: Fermi GBM observation Hoi-Fung Yu and Andreas von Kienlin (MPE) report on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team: "At 10:22:53.12 UT on 23 March 2014, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor triggered and located GRB 140323A (trigger 417262976 / 140323433), which was also detected by Swift/BAT and XRT (Troja et al. 2014, GCN 16027). The GBM on-ground location is consistent with the Swift position. The angle from the Fermi LAT boresight is 31 degrees. The GBM light curve consists of multiple peaks in two main episodes with a duration (T90) of about 111 s (50-300 keV). The time-averaged spectrum from T0-2.560 s to T0+138.755 s is well fit by a power law function with an exponential high-energy cutoff. The power law index is -1.09 +/- 0.02 and the cutoff energy, parameterized as Epeak, is 142 +/- 4 keV The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is (3.15 +/- 0.05)E-05 erg/cm^2. The 1.024 s peak photon flux measured starting from T0+25.0884 s in the 10-1000 keV band is 9.7 +/- 0.3 ph/s/cm^2. The spectral analysis results presented above are preliminary; final results will be published in the GBM GRB Catalog." //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16033 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 14/03/24 01:40:05 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB), V. D'Elia (ASDC), M.C. Stroh (PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), B.P. Gompertz (U. Leicester) and E. Troja report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 6.3 ks of XRT data for GRB 140323A (Troja et al. GCN Circ. 16027), from 90 s to 34.5 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 650 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 Osborne et al. (GCN Circ. 16028). The late-time light curve (from T0+5.7 ks) can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.30 (+/-0.09). A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 1.73 (+/-0.06). The best-fitting absorption column is 5.0 (+/-0.4) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 7.9 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 2.00 (+/-0.12) and a best-fitting absorption column of 5.3 (+/-0.7) x 10^21 cm^-2. The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 4.2 x 10^-11 (6.8 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 5.3 (+/-0.7) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 7.9 x 10^20 cm^-2 Excess significance: 10.8 sigma Photon index: 2.00 (+/-0.12) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 1.30, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.033 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.4 x 10^-12 (2.3 x 10^-12) erg cm^-2 s^-1. The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00592916. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16034 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Fermi-LAT detection DATE: 14/03/24 09:54:39 GMT FROM: Elisabetta Bissaldi at U.Innsbruk/IAPP G. Vianello (Stanford), F. Longo and E. Bissaldi (University and INFN Trieste) report on behalf of the Fermi-LAT team: On March 23, 2014, Fermi-LAT detected high-energy emission from GRB 140323A, initially detected by Swift (Troja et al., GCN 16027) and also detected by Fermi-GBM (Yu et al., GCN 16032). We note that the GBM and the Swift trigger times are different. Here we will use as a reference the GBM trigger time, i.e. 10:22:53.12 UT. The data from the Fermi-LAT show a significant increase in the event rate within 10 degrees of the Swift location. More than 11 photons above 100 MeV and 3 photons above 1 GeV are observed within 1000 seconds from the GBM trigger time. The highest-energy photon is a 2.5 GeV event, which is observed ~220 seconds after the trigger. The best LAT on-ground location is found to be RA, Dec 356.46, -79.87 (J2000) with an error radius of 0.19 deg (90% containment, statistical error only). This is 0.09 deg from the Swift/XRT localization (GCN 16028) and is consistent with it. The source was 31 deg from the LAT boresight at the time of the trigger. The Fermi-LAT point of contact for this burst is Daniel Kocevski (daniel.kocevski@nasa.gov). The Fermi-LAT is a pair conversion telescope designed to cover the energy band from 20 MeV to greater than 300 GeV. It is the product of an international collaboration between NASA and DOE in the U.S. and many scientific institutions across France, Italy, Japan and Sweden. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16035 SUBJECT: Konus-Wind observation of GRB 140323A DATE: 14/03/24 13:39:28 GMT FROM: Dmitry Frederiks at Ioffe Institute S. Golenetskii, R.Aptekar, D. Frederiks, V. Pal'shin, P. Oleynik, M. Ulanov, D. Svinkin, A. Tsvetkova, and T. Cline on behalf of the Konus-Wind team, report: A long-duration GRB 140323A (Swift-BAT trigger 592916: Troja et al., GCN 16027; Sakamoto et al., GCN 16029; Fermi-GBM detection: Yu & von Kienlin, GCN 16032; Fermi-LAT detection: Vianello et al., GCN 16034) triggered Konus-Wind at T0=37392.356 s UT (10:23:12.356). The burst light curve shows multiple peaks in two major bursting episodes. A total duration of the burst is ~130 s. The emission is seen up to ~10 MeV. As observed by Konus-Wind, the burst had a fluence of 3.1(-0.4,+0.7)x10^-5 erg/cm2, and a 64-ms peak flux, measured from T0+5.376 s, of 3.2(-0.6,+0.7)x10^-6 erg/cm2/s (both in the 20 keV - 10 MeV energy range). The time-averaged spectrum (measured from T0 to T0+106.752 s) is best fit in the 20 keV - 18 MeV range by the GRB (Band) function with the following model parameters: the low-energy photon index alpha = -1.09 (-0.15,+0.31), the high energy photon index beta = -3.0 (-7.0,+0.6), the peak energy Ep = 127 (-24,+16) keV, chi2 = 93.4/97 dof. The spectrum near the maximum count rate (measured from T0 to T0+8.448 s) is best fit in the 20 keV - 18 MeV range by the GRB (Band) function with the following model parameters: the low-energy photon index alpha = -0.79 (-0.18,+0.20), the high energy photon index beta = -2.7 (-6.0,+0.3), the peak energy Ep = 184 (-24,+31) keV, chi2 = 96.8/87 dof. The Konus-Wind light curve of this GRB is available at http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/GRBs/GRB140323_T37392/ All the quoted errors are at the 90% confidence level. All the quoted values are preliminary. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16039 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A : Suzaku WAM observation of the prompt emission DATE: 14/03/27 07:53:42 GMT FROM: Tetsuya Yasuda at Saitama U W. Iwakiri(RIKEN), M. Tashiro, Y. Terada, T. Yasuda, Y. Ishida, H. Ueno, S. Sugimoto, S. Koyama, S. Takeda, T. Nagayoshi (Saitama U.), M. Yamauchi, N. Ohmori, M. Akiyama, R. Kinoshita (Univ. of Miyazaki), M. Ohno, K. Takaki, T. Kawano, R. Nakamura, S. Furui, Y. Fukazawa (Hiroshima U.), K. Yamaoka (Nagoya U.), S. Sugita (Ehime U.), Y. Hanabata (ICRR), Y. E. Nakagawa, M. Kokubun, T. Takahashi (ISAS/JAXA), Y. Urata (NCU), K. Nakazawa, K. Makishima (Univ. of Tokyo) on behalf of the Suzaku WAM team, report: The long GRB 140323A (Swift/BAT trigger #592916 ; Troja et al., GCN 16027; Sakamoto et al., GCN 16029; Fermi-GBM detection : Yu and von Kienlin, GCN 16032; Fermi-LAT detection: Vianello et al., GCN 16034; Konus-Wind detection : Golenetskii et al., GCN16035) triggered the Suzaku Wide-band All-sky Monitor (WAM) which covers an energy range of 50 keV - 5 MeV at 10:23:12.262 UT (=T0). The observed light curve shows a multi-peaked structure in two main episodes lasting from T0-15 s to T0+95 s with a duration (T90) of about 90 seconds. The fluence in 100 - 1000 keV was 1.36 (+/- 0.12) x10^-6 erg/cm^2. The 1-s peak flux measured from T0+6 s was 2.17 (+0.35, -0.45) photons/cm^2/s in the same energy range. Preliminary result shows that the time-averaged spectrum from T0-10 s to T0+95 s is well fitted in 200 keV to 5 MeV by a single power-law with a photon index of 2.64 (+0.34, -0.28) (chi^2/d.o.f = 12.5/14). All the quoted errors are at statistical 90% confidence level, in which the systematic uncertainties are not included. The light curves for this burst will be available at: http://www.astro.isas.jaxa.jp/suzaku/HXD-WAM/WAM-GRB/grb/trig/grb_table.html //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 16059 SUBJECT: GRB 140323A: Zadko observatory - Gingin optical observations DATE: 14/03/31 17:47:35 GMT FROM: Alain Klotz at IRAP-CNRS-OMP A. Klotz, D. Turpin (IRAP-CNRS-OMP), D. Macpherson (UWA/ICRAR), D. Coward (UWA), M. Boer, B. Gendre, K. Siellez, H. Dereli, O. Bardho (UNS-CNRS-OCA), A. Williams (PO-UWA), R. Martin (PO-UWA) report: We imaged the field of GRB 140323A detected by SWIFT (trigger 592916) with the Zadko robotic telescope (D=100cm) located at the observatory - Gingin, Australia. The observations started 1.0 hour after the GRB trigger. The elevation of the field was at 27 degrees above horizon and weather conditions were good. We co-added a series of exposures. We do not detect any optical candidate in the XRT error box provided by Troja et al. (GCNC 16027) at the limiting magnitude of: From t0+1.0h to t0+1.6h Rlim=20.8 Magnitudes were estimated with the nearby USNO-B1 stars and are not corrected for galactic dust extinction. N.B. Galactic coordinates are lon=306.3802 lat=-36.7801