Follow-up of PTF10bzf with Swift
ATel #2471; M. M. Kasliwal (Caltech) and S. B. Cenko (UC Berkeley) report on behalf of the Palomar Transient Factory Collaboration
on 11 Mar 2010; 03:01 UT
Credential Certification: Mansi Manoj Kasliwal (mansi@astro.caltech.edu)
Subjects: Optical, Ultra-Violet, X-ray, Supernovae, Transient
We triggered our Swift Target Of Opportunity program ("Unveiling New Classes of Transients with Palomar Transient Factory", PI S. R. Kulkarni) for PTF10bzf (see ATEL#2470). Thus far, we have obtained two epochs. Our first 5ks epoch was on UT 2010 Mar 4.029 and second 2.5ks epoch was on Mar 8.303. We do not detect PTF10bzf with Swift/XRT down to a 3-sigma limiting count rate (assuming an 18" radius) of 3.7e-4 cps and 7.7e-4 cps respectively in the two epochs. Assuming a power law model with photon index of two, this corresponds to a flux limit of 1.3e-14 and 2.7e-14 ergs/cm^2/s respectively.
On Mar 4, with Swift/UVOT, we detect PTF10bzf at B = 18.73 +/- 0.10, U = 18.88 +/- 0.12, UVW1 = 20.07 +/- 0.18 and UVW2 = 20.18 +/- 0.26. On Mar 8, the transient faded to U = 19.68 +/- 0.14 and UVW1 = 20.12 +/- 0.24. Note that the Swift/UVOT fluxes may be contaminated with host galaxy light and we have to wait until the supernova fades to obtain reference imaging and correct for this appropriately.
Follow-up with Swift is ongoing. We thank the Swift team for scheduling these observations.
Palomar Transient Factory
