[vsnet-grb-info 6518] SGR 0501+4516: UKIRT detection of possible infra-red counterpart

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  8126
SUBJECT: SGR 0501+4516: UKIRT detection of possible infra-red counterpart
DATE:    08/08/23 18:22:54 GMT
FROM:    Nial Tanvir at IofA U.Cambridge  <nrt at ast.cam.ac.uk>

N. R. Tanvir (U. Leicester), W. Varricatt (JACH) report on behalf of a
larger collaboration:

We observed the field of SGR 0501+4516 with UKIRT/UFTI about 2 hours
after the first BAT trigger (Holland et al. GCN 8112).  We clearly
detect a faint point source in the K-band image within the XRT error
circle, at a position, relative to 2MASS stars in the field, of:

 05:01:06.75 +45:16:34.0 (J2000)

with an uncertainty of about 0.5 arcsec.  The magnitude of the source
is K~18.6 (also calibrated to 2MASS) and there is tentative evidence of
variability at the 0.2 mag level between sub-exposures, supporting the
possibility that it is the nIR counterpart to the SGR.

Further analysis is ongoing.