[vsnet-grb-info 13549] GRB 130612A: VLT/X-shooter redshift

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  14882
SUBJECT: GRB 130612A: VLT/X-shooter redshift
DATE:    13/06/12 06:18:45 GMT
FROM:    Nial Tanvir at U.Leicester  <nrt3 at star.le.ac.uk>

N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), K. Wiersema (U. Leicester), D. Xu
(DARK/NBI), J. P. U. Fynbo (DARK/NBI) report for a larger
collaboration:

We observed the afterglow of GRB 130612A (Racusin et al. GCN 14874)
with VLT/X-shooter, beginning at 2013-06-12 04:28 UT, about 66 mins
after the burst.

Preliminary analysis of the spectrum reveals absorption lines of FeII
2261, 2374, 2344, 2383, 2600, 2587, 2600, 2607, MnII 2577, MgII
2796/2803 and MgI 2852 at a common redshift of z=2.006.  This
is consistent with a break seen in the UVB arm spectrum due to a 
damped Lyman-alpha feature at ~3650 A. We therefore propose 
this to be the redshift of the GRB.

We thank the staff at Paranal, particularly Christophe Martayan, for
obtaining these observations.