[vsnet-grb-info 1998] GRB050820: refined XRT analysis

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN GRB OBSERVATION REPORT
NUMBER:  3837
SUBJECT: GRB050820: refined XRT analysis
DATE:    05/08/20 19:51:24 GMT
FROM:    Kim Page at U.of Leicester,Swift SDC  <kpa at star.le.ac.uk>

K.L. Page, A.P. Beardmore, M.R. Goad (U. Leicester), J.A. Kennea, D.N.
Burrows (PSU), F. Marshall (GSFC) and A. Smale (NASA HQ) report on behalf
of the Swift/XRT team:

We have analysed the first 6 orbits of XRT data for GRB050820, spanning 88
- 3e5 seconds after the burst. There is a bright, fading afterglow in the
field of view, with refined coordinates of

RA(J2000):  22:29:38.2
Dec(J2000): 19:33:31.1

with an uncertainty of 7 arcseconds radius (90% containment). This is 5.9
arcsec from the on-board XRT position given in GCN 3830 and 6.1 arcsec
from the optical afterglow reported in GCN 3829.

XRT observations began in Windowed Timing mode 88 seconds after the
trigger, followed by Photon Counting (PC) data from the start of the
second orbit (4660 seconds after the burst). The PC data show a smooth
decline with a decay slope of alpha = 1.13 +/- 0.04.

The PC spectrum can be well fitted by a power-law with Gamma = 1.94 +/-
0.07, and an excess absorbing column of ~6e21 cm^-2 in the rest-frame of
the GRB (taking the redshift of 2.612 from GCN 3833).

Assuming a smooth, unbroken decay, the predicted count-rate at 24 hours
(06.30 UT on 2005-08-21) is 0.085 count s^-1, corresponding to an
unabsorbed 0.3-10 keV flux of 3.4e-12 erg cm^-2 s^-1.