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Register a new userSwift Observations of GRB 050603: An afterglow with a steep late time decay slope
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Dirk Grupe
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We report the results of Swift observations of the Gamma Ray Burst GRB 050603. With a V magnitude V=18.2 about 10 hours after the burst the optical afterglow was the brightest so far detected by Swift and one of the brightest optical afterglows ever seen. The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) light curves show three fast-rise-exponential-decay spikes with $T_{90}$=12s and a fluence of 7.6$times 10^{-6}$ ergs cm$^{-2}$ in the 15-150 keV band. With an $E_{rm gamma, iso} = 1.26 times 10^{54}$ ergs it was also one of the most energetic bursts of all times. The Swift spacecraft began observing of the afterglow with the narrow-field instruments about 10 hours after the detection of the burst. The burst was bright enough to be detected by the Swift UV/Optical telescope (UVOT) for almost 3 days and by the X-ray Telescope (XRT) for a week after the burst. The X-ray light curve shows a rapidly fading afterglow with a decay index $alpha$=1.76$^{+0.15}_{-0.07}$. The X-ray energy spectral index was $beta_{rm X}$=0.71plm0.10 with the column density in agreement with the Galactic value. The spectral analysis does not show an obvious change in the X-ray spectral slope over time. The optical UVOT light curve decays with a slope of $alpha$=1.8plm0.2. The steepness and the similarity of the optical and X-ray decay rates suggest that the afterglow was observed after the jet break. We estimate a jet opening angle of about 1-2$^{circ}$
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We present results of Swift optical, UV and X-ray observations of the afterglow of GRB 050801. The source is visible over the full optical, UV and X-ray energy range of the Swift UVOT and XRT instruments.Both optical and X-ray lightcurves exhibit a broad plateau (Delta t/t ~ 1) during the first few hundred seconds after the gamma-ray event. We investigate the multiwavelength spectral and timing properties of the afterglow, and we suggest that the behaviour at early times is compatible with an energy injection by a newly born magnetar with a period of a few tenths of a millisecond, which keeps the forward shock refreshed over this short interval by irradiation. Reverse shock emission is not observed. Its suppression might be due to GRB ejecta being permeated by high magnetic fields, as expected for outflows powered by a magnetar.Finally, the multiwavelength study allows a determination of the burst redshift, z=1.56.
The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, launched on 2004 November 20, is a multiwavelength, autonomous, rapid-slewing observatory for gamma-ray burst (GRB) astronomy. On 2004 December 23, during the activation phase of the mission, the Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT) was pointed at a burst discovered earlier that day by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope. A fading, uncataloged X-ray source was discovered by the XRT and was observed over a period of about 3 hours, beginning 4.6 hours after the burst. The X-ray detection triggered a VLT observation of the optical/NIR counterpart, located about 1.1 arcseconds from the XRT position. The X-ray counterpart faded rapidly, with a power law index of -1.72 +/- 0.20. The average unabsorbed X-ray flux 4.6-7.9 hours after the burst was 6.5 x 10^{-12} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1} in the 0.5-10 keV band, for a power-law spectrum of photon index 2.02 +/- 0.13 with Galactic absorption. The NIR counterpart was observed at three epochs between 16 and 87 hours after the burst, and faded with a power-law index of -1.14 +/- 0.08 with a reddening-corrected SED power-law slope of -0.40 +/- 0.03. We find that the X-ray and NIR data are consistent with a two-component jet in a wind medium, with an early jet break in the narrow component and an underlying electron index of 1.8-2.0.
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