//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23149 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 18/08/18 12:44:59 GMT FROM: David Palmer at LANL F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), V. D'Elia (ASDC), S. W. K Emery (UCL-MSSL), J. A. Kennea (PSU), M. J. Moss (George Washington University), K. L. Page (U Leicester) and M. H. Siegel (PSU) report on behalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team: At 12:30:18 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 180818B (trigger=853882). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 104.235, +39.329 which is RA(J2000) = 06h 56m 56s Dec(J2000) = +39d 19' 43" 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 130 sec, starting ~100 sec before the trigger time during the previous spacecraft slew. The peak count rate was ~1000 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~-90 sec after the trigger. The XRT began observing the field at 12:33:42.4 UT, 203.8 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find a bright, uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 104.22468, 39.31662 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 06h 56m 53.92s Dec(J2000) = +39d 18' 59.8" with an uncertainty of 4.4 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 53 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. No spectrum from the promptly downlinked event data is yet available to determine the column density. The initial flux in the 2.5 s image was 1.30e-09 erg cm^-2 s^-1 (0.2-10 keV). UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 212 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 0.09. Burst Advocate for this burst is F. E. Marshall (marshall AT milkyway.gsfc.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: 23151 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: Enhanced Swift-XRT position DATE: 18/08/18 15:50:51 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 1716 s of XRT Photon Counting mode data and 2 UVOT images for GRB 180818B, 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 = 104.22470, +39.31571 which is equivalent to: RA (J2000): 06h 56m 53.93s Dec (J2000): +39d 18' 56.6" with an uncertainty of 1.7 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: 23152 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: Swift/UVOT Upper Limits DATE: 18/08/18 18:08:33 GMT FROM: Paul Kuin at MSSL N. P. M. Kuin (UCL-MSSL) and F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift/UVOT team: The Swift/UVOT began settled observations of the field of GRB 180818B 212 s after the BAT trigger (Marshall et al., GCN Circ. 23149). No optical afterglow consistent with the XRT position (Beardmore et al. GCN Circ. 23151) 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 212 362 147 >19.9 white 212 11082 1482 >21.1 v 369 12690 1148 >19.8 b 467 6919 471 >19.9 u 442 6714 469 >19.6 w1 418 6509 468 >19.9 m2 393 6304 471 >20.5 w2 517 11988 1160 >20.3 The magnitudes in the table are not corrected for the Galactic extinction due to the reddening of E(B-V) = 0.09 in the direction of the burst (Schlegel et al. 1998). //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23153 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: Fermi GBM observations DATE: 18/08/18 23:14:07 GMT FROM: Peter Veres at UAH P. Veres (UAH), C. Meegan (UAH) and A. von Kienlin (MPE) report on behalf of the Fermi GBM Team: "At 12:28:57.24 UT on 18 August 2018, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor triggered and located GRB 180818B (trigger 556288142 / 180818520). which was also detected by the Swift/BAT (Marshall et al., GCN 23149). The GBM on-ground location is consistent with the Swift position. The angle from the Fermi LAT boresight at the GBM trigger time is 89 degrees. The GBM light curve consists of two separate emission episodes with a duration (T90) of about 169 s (50-300 keV). The time-averaged spectrum from T0-16 s to T0+125 s is best fit by a power law function with an exponential high-energy cutoff. The power law index is 1.8 +/- 1.32 and the cutoff energy, parameterized as Epeak, is 78 +/- 9 keV. The event fluence (10-1000 keV) in this time interval is (4.7 +/- 0.7)E-7 erg/cm^2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured starting from T0-2.4 s in the 10-1000 keV band is 2.1 +/- 0.2 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: 23155 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: Swift-BAT refined analysis DATE: 18/08/19 01:00:33 GMT FROM: Amy Lien at GSFC J. R. Cummings (CPI), S. D. Barthelmy (GSFC), H. A. Krimm (NSF/USRA), A. Y. Lien (GSFC/UMBC), C. B. Markwardt (GSFC), F. E. Marshall (NASA/GSFC), D. M. Palmer (LANL), T. Sakamoto (AGU), M. Stamatikos (OSU), T. N. Ukwatta (LANL) (i.e. the Swift-BAT team): Using the data set from T-239 to T+963 sec from the recent telemetry downlink, we report further analysis of BAT GRB 180818B (trigger #853882) (Marshall et al., GCN Circ. 23149). The BAT ground-calculated position is RA, Dec = 104.227, 39.310 deg which is RA(J2000) = 06h 56m 54.5s Dec(J2000) = +39d 18' 35.1" with an uncertainty of 1.7 arcmin, (radius, sys+stat, 90% containment). The partial coding was 89%. The mask-weighted light curve shows two pulses. The first pulse starts at at ~T-100 s, peaks at ~T-80 s, and ends at ~T-50 s. The second pulse starts at ~T+10 s, peaks at ~T+30 s, and ends at ~T+60 s. T90 (15-350 keV) is 134.4 +- 9.8 sec (estimated error including systematics). However, note that the burst came into the BAT FOV at ~T-128 s, and thus there might be additional burst emission beforehand. The time-averaged spectrum from T-93.58 to T+62.74 sec is best fit by a simple power-law model. The power law index of the time-averaged spectrum is 1.77 +- 0.12. The fluence in the 15-150 keV band is 2.3 +- 0.2 x 10^-6 erg/cm2. The 1-sec peak photon flux measured from T-82.11 sec in the 15-150 keV band is 1.2 +- 0.2 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/853882/BA/ //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23156 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 18/08/19 05:11:20 GMT FROM: Phil Evans at U of Leicester A. D'Ai (INAF-IASFPA), B. Sbarufatti (INAF-OAB/PSU), D.N. Burrows (PSU), A. Tohuvavohu (PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester), P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), S.L. Gibson (U. Leicester), A. Melandri (INAF-OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF-OAB) and F.E. Marshall report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 8.1 ks of XRT data for GRB 180818B (Marshall et al. GCN Circ. 23149), from 210 s to 52.8 ks after the BAT trigger. The data comprise 205 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode with the remainder in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Beardmore et al. (GCN Circ. 23151). The late-time light curve (from T0+4.5 ks) can be modelled with a power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=0.86 (+/-0.07). A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 3.47 (+0.12, -0.11). The best-fitting absorption column is 2.89 (+0.25, -0.23) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 1.3 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Willingale et al. 2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 1.77 (+0.07, -0.06) and a best-fitting absorption column consistent with the Galactic value. The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 3.8 x 10^-11 (4.5 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 1.27 (+0.11, -0.00) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 1.3 x 10^21 cm^-2 Excess significance: <1.6 sigma Photon index: 1.77 (+0.07, -0.06) If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of 0.86, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 0.030 count s^-1, corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.1 x 10^-12 (1.3 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/00853882. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23161 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: 1.5m OSN optical afterglow candidate DATE: 18/08/21 21:58:52 GMT FROM: Youdong HU at IAA-CSIC, UGR Y.-D. Hu, A. Sota, V. Casanova and A.J. Castro-Tirado (IAA-CSIC Granada), on behalf of a larger collaboration, report: We observed the field of the Swift/Fermi burst GRB 180818B (Marshall et al. GCNC 23149, Veres et al. GCNC 23153), with the 150-cm telescope of the Observatorio de Sierra Nevada (OSN) near Granada, Spain. Two I-band observations were taken on Aug 19 and 21 (starting at 03:40 and 04:19 UT respectively, i.e. ~15.2 h and ~63.8 h after trigger) with total exposure times of 2100s and 1200s respectively. Within the enhanced Swift/XRT position (Beardmore et al. GCNC 23151), an optical source was detected on the first epoch with an I-band magnitude of 21.6, which faded by at least 0.5 mag on the 2nd epoch observation. We propose this source to be the optical afterglow to GRB 180818B. The above mentioned magnitude is calibrated against the USNO-B1 catalog and is not corrected for Galactic extinction in the direction of the GRB. Further observations are encouraged. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 23177 SUBJECT: GRB 180818B: TSHAO optical upper limit DATE: 18/08/26 16:17:39 GMT FROM: Alexei Pozanenko at IKI, Moscow E. Mazaeva (IKI), A. Pozanenko (IKI), A. Kusakin (FAPHI), I. Reva (FAPHI), A. Volnova (IKI), M. Krugov (FAPHI) report on behalf of larger GRB follow-up collaboration: We observed the field of GRB 180818B (Marshall et al., GCN 23149; Veres et al., GCN 23153) with Zeiss-1000 1-m telescope of Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory starting on August 08 (UT) 22:20:38. We obtained several images in R-filter. Within enhanced XRT Swift-XRT position (Beardmore et al., GCN 23151) we do not detect any object. In particular we do not detect the afterglow candidate reported in GCN 23161 (Hu et al.) Preliminary photometry of the field is following. Date UT start t-T0 Filter Exp. OT Err. UL (mid, days) (s) 2018-08-18 22:20:38 0.42710 R 36*60 n/d n/d 20.4 The photometry is based on several nearby USNO-B1.0 stars.