[vsnet-grb-info 17089] GRB 151006A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  18407
SUBJECT: GRB 151006A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis
DATE:    15/10/06 22:05:02 GMT
FROM:    Phil Evans at U of Leicester  <pae9 at leicester.ac.uk>

L.M. McCauley (PSU), J.A. Kennea (PSU), A.P. Beardmore (U. Leicester),
P.A. Evans (U. Leicester), S.L. Gibson (U. Leicester), V. D'Elia
(ASDC), A. D'ai (INAF-IASFPA), A. Maselli  (INAF-IASFPA), B. Sbarufatti
(INAF-OAB/PSU) and D. Kocevski report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team:

We have analysed 11 ks of XRT data for GRB 151006A (Kocevski et al. GCN
Circ. 18398), from 40 s to 29.1 ks after the  BAT trigger. The data
comprise 552 s in Windowed Timing (WT) mode (the first 7 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 Goad et al.
(GCN Circ. 18399).

The light curve can be modelled with an initial power-law decay with an
index of alpha=0.3 (+0.7, -1.6), followed by a break at T+64.1 s to an
alpha of 1.377 (+0.020, -0.019).

A spectrum formed from the WT mode data can be fitted with an absorbed
power-law with a photon spectral index	of 1.45 (+0.06, -0.05). The
best-fitting absorption column is  4.9 (+0.5, -0.4) x 10^21 cm^-2, in
excess of the Galactic value of 7.7 x 10^20 cm^-2 (Willingale et al.
2013). The PC mode spectrum has a photon index of 2.08 (+0.17, -0.16)
and a best-fitting absorption column of 4.3 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2.
The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor
deduced from this spectrum  is 3.7 x 10^-11 (6.1 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2
count^-1. 

A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus:
Total column:	     4.3 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2
Galactic foreground: 7.7 x 10^20 cm^-2
Excess significance: 7.1 sigma
Photon index:	     2.08 (+0.17, -0.16)

If the light curve continues to decay with a power-law decay index of
1.377, the count rate at T+24 hours will be 4.7 x 10^-3 count s^-1,
corresponding to an observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux of 1.7 x
10^-13 (2.9 x 10^-13) erg cm^-2 s^-1.

The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at
http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00657750.

This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.