TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 35436 SUBJECT: GRB 231230A: Swift detection of a burst DATE: 23/12/30 01:44:18 GMT FROM: K.L. Page at U Leicester klp5@leicester.ac.uk
M. J. Moss (GSFC), C. Gronwall (PSU), J.D. Gropp (PSU), H. A. Krimm (NSF), A. Y. Lien (U Tampa), K. L. Page (U Leicester) and M. H. Siegel (PSU) report on behalf of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team:
At 01:29:08 UT, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) triggered and located GRB 231230A (trigger=1205319). Swift slewed immediately to the burst. The BAT on-board calculated location is RA, Dec 245.197, +58.120 which is RA(J2000) = 16h 20m 47s Dec(J2000) = +58d 07' 11" with an uncertainty of 3 arcmin (radius, 90% containment, including systematic uncertainty). The BAT light curve showed a multi-peaked structure with a duration of about 30 sec. The peak count rate was ~1500 counts/sec (15-350 keV), at ~1 sec after the trigger.
The XRT began observing the field at 01:32:45.0 UT, 216.3 seconds after the BAT trigger. Using promptly downlinked data we find an uncatalogued X-ray source located at RA, Dec 245.21706, 58.12324 which is equivalent to: RA(J2000) = 16h 20m 52.09s Dec(J2000) = +58d 07' 23.7" with an uncertainty of 3.5 arcseconds (radius, 90% containment). This location is 39 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 https://www.swift.ac.uk/sper. We cannot determine whether the source is fading at the present time.
A power-law fit to a spectrum formed from promptly downlinked event data gives a column density in excess of the Galactic value (1.31 x 10^20 cm^-2, Willingale et al. 2013), with an excess column of 4.3 (+4.82/-3.83) x 10^21 cm^-2 (90% confidence).
UVOT took a finding chart exposure of 150 seconds with the White filter starting 145 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 0.015.
Burst Advocate for this burst is M. J. Moss (mikejmoss3 AT gmail.com). 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/)
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