An online repository of Swift/XRT light curves of Γ-ray bursts

By P. Evans, A. Beardmore, K. Page, L. Tyler, J. Osborne, M. Goad, P. O’Brien, L. Vetere, J. Racusin, D. Morris and 10 more. 2007

671 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Context. Swift data are revolutionising our understanding of Gamma Ray Bursts. Since bursts fade rapidly, it is desirable to create and disseminate accurate light curves rapidly. Aims. To provide the community with an online repository of X-ray light curves obtained with Swift . The light curves should be of the quality expected of published data, but automatically created and updated so as to be self-consistent and rapidly available. Methods. We have produced a suite of programs which automatically generates Swift /XRT light curves of GRBs. Effects of the damage to the CCD, automatic readout-mode switching and pile-up are appropriately handled, and the data are binned with variable bin durations, as necessary for a fading source. Results. The light curve repository website (http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_curves) contains light curves, hardness ratios and deep images for every GRB which Swift 's XRT has observed. When new GRBs are detected, light curves are created and updated within minutes of the data arriving at the UK Swift Science Data Centre.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6d953cc22c8f9c33bdda11301cf4c6c9c0c4a41

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Bing Zhang
2. E. Berger
3. B. Metzger
4. Pawan Kumar
5. E. Liang
6. E. Nakar
7. Binbin Zhang
8. W. Fong

Citations in the corpus

• A real-time fast radio burst: polarization detection and multiwavelength follow-up (2014, result): “We compare these limits to light curves of known variable supernovae and gamma-ray bursts (Figure 3) and find that many nearby sources would have been detected in this analysis (Evans et al. 2007; Rest et al. 2011; Kulkarni et al. 1998; Galama et al. 1998).”
• A NEW POPULATION OF ULTRA-LONG DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2013, methodology): “Given the large scale changes apparent in the spectra of 31 www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_spectra (Evans et al. 2007,2009), processed using the Swift software released in HEASOFT 6.12 both bursts we chose to time-slice the resulting data, and fit the spectra separately within each time-slice.”
• A DECADE OF SHORT-DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURST BROADBAND AFTERGLOWS: ENERGETICS, CIRCUMBURST DENSITIES, AND JET OPENING ANGLES (2015, methodology): “…2.3×104 354 0.36 0.093 2.3×104 461 0.27 0.070 2.8×104 354 0.23 0.057 2.8×104 253 0.30 0.077 2.9×104 366 0.20 0.054 3.1×104 5.1×103 0.18 0.033 4.2×104 6.0×103 0.13 0.034 4.6×104 479 0.21 0.052 5.4×104 6.5×103 0.080 0.018 6.8×104 1.2×104 0.076 0.0142 1.2×105 8.6×104 0.029 6.5×10−3 2.6×105 5.8×104 <…”
• THE AFTERGLOW OF GRB 130427A FROM 1 TO 1016 GHz (2013, methodology): “We downloaded the Swift BAT and XRT light curves and spectral analysis from the Swift Burst Analyser (Evans et al. 2010)27 and Swift XRT repository (Evans et al. 2007, 2009).”
• The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts – II. New FRB discoveries and their follow-up. (2017, methodology): “The data were analysed using the tools available at the Swift website (Evans et al. 2007, 2009) on an observation-by-observation basis.”
• A POPULATION OF MASSIVE, LUMINOUS GALAXIES HOSTING HEAVILY DUST-OBSCURED GAMMA-RAY BURSTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE USE OF GRBs AS TRACERS OF COSMIC STAR FORMATION (2013, methodology): “The Swift XRT X-ray flux is determined from the Swift data pages (Evans et al. 2007, 2009), converted to a 1 keV flux density using the timeaveraged spectral index and absorption correction, and interpolated to the exact time of observation based on a power-law fit to neighboring data points.”
• The prompt-afterglow connection in gamma-ray bursts: a comprehensive statistical analysis of Swift X-ray light curves (2012, result): “…Here we note that: (i) While agreeing on the major steps, the data extraction adopted here is slightly different from the methods presented in Evans et al. (2007) and Evans et al. (2009): however, after comparing every single LC obtained with the two techniques, we find that the methods lead…”
• Swift J1112.2−8238: a candidate relativistic tidal disruption flare (2015, methodology): “We obtained reduced XRT products from the Swift archive2, created using the techniques outlined in Evans et al. (2007, 2009, 2010).”
• Signatures of magnetar central engines in short GRB light curves (2013, methodology): “Fν(1keV ) = Fν(measured) ( E(measured) 1keV )βx,o (7) Γx was obtained from the time averaged PC mode spectra produced by the automated anaylsis on the UKSwiftData Centre website (Evans et al. 2007, 2009).”
• The SEDs and host galaxies of the dustiest GRB afterglows (2011, methodology): “Spectra were grouped to yield a minimum of 20 counts per bin, while the light curve was taken from the Swift/XRT light curve repository (Evans et al. 2007, 2009).”
• A RADIO-SELECTED SAMPLE OF GAMMA-RAY BURST AFTERGLOWS (2011, methodology): “However, for the bursts in which the flux at 11 hr was not available, we obtained the X-ray light curve from the Swift/XRT lightcurve repository (Evans et al. 2007) and derived the flux as close to 11 hr as possible (i.e., within ±0.5 hr).”
• THE AFTERGLOWS OF SWIFT-ERA GAMMA-RAY BURSTS. II. TYPE I GRB VERSUS TYPE II GRB OPTICAL AFTERGLOWS (2008, background): “Finally, the short INTEGRAL GRB 071017 is probably associated with a known Galactic X-ray source (Mereghetti et al. 2007; Evans et al. 2007).”
• THE ULTRA-LONG GAMMA-RAY BURST 111209A: THE COLLAPSE OF A BLUE SUPERGIANT? (2012, methodology): “For the case of Swift, we also searched in the XRT light curve repository (Evans et al. 2007) to obtain the start time of the sharp decay for all bursts, and found no burst with such a large duration.”
• A PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFT OF z ∼ 9.4 FOR GRB 090429B (2011, methodology): “For some analyses, we have used the automatic data products produced by the UK Swift Science Data Centre (Evans et al. 2007, 2009).”