Swift XRT/UVOT rapid follow-up of bright FRB 20211211A
ATel #15114; Aaron Tohuvavohu (U Toronto), Jamie Kennea (PSU), Phil Evans (U Leicester), James DeLaunay (U Alabama)
on 15 Dec 2021; 01:43 UT
Credential Certification: Aaron Tohuvavohu (a.tohuvavohu@mail.utoronto.ca)
Subjects: Radio, Ultra-Violet, X-ray, Transient, Fast Radio Burst
The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory responded with its newly commissioned AutoToO autonomous repoint mode, to rapidly observe the bright CHIME FRB 20211122A (event #202020046 T0: 2021-12-11T16:58:05.183768), slewing and landing on target at T0+21 minutes.
The XRT field of view fully covers the 95% containment region (radius 9.7') reported by CHIME/FRB. The UVOT field of view covered ~85% of this region.
Observations continued for 800 s of integrated exposure, with XRT taking data in Photon Counting (PC) mode and UVOT observing in event mode (11 ms timing) with the u filter.
No new sources are found in the FRBâs localization region, down to an average 3 sigma upper limit of 1e-2 ct s-1 (0.3-10 keV) and 20.5 AB mag in the u filter.
Two known X-ray sources, believed to be AGN, are detected in apparent outburst compared to previous observations, but consistent with their historical flaring behaviour.
This research has made use of the CHIME/FRB VOEvent Service.
