Further X-ray observations of Nova Del 2013 with Swift
ATel #5305; T. Nelson (Minnesota), K. Mukai (UMBC/GSFC), L. Chomiuk (MSU and NRAO), J. Sokoloski, J. Weston, Y. Zheng (Columbia), M. Rupen, A. Mioduszewski (NRAO), J. Linford, & T. Finzell (MSU)
on 21 Aug 2013; 16:30 UT
Credential Certification: Thomas Nelson (tnelson@physics.umn.edu)
We observed Nova Del 2013 (see CBET #3628) with the Swift satellite on 2013-08-18, four days after discovery (see also ATEL #5283). The exposures were carried out between 0.0 and 15.7 UT, and are therefore coincident with the first appearance of gamma-ray emission from this nova as seen with the Fermi-LAT (ATEL #5302). The XRT instrument was operated in Window Timing (WT) in order to mitigate the impact of optical loading on the CCD, and the total exposure time was 4522s. Due to the extreme brightness of the nova, the UVOT instrument was turned off for the majority of the observation.
No X-ray source is detected at the position of the nova, with a 3-sigma upper limit to the count rate of 0.025 counts/s in the 0.3-10 keV energy range. This corresponds to an observed flux of 1.4e-12 erg/s/cm^2 assuming a spectrum typical of early X-ray emission from novae (a 5 keV thermal plasma absorbed by a foreground column density of 1e22 cm^-2, see Mukai et al. 2008 ApJ 677, 1248).
We thank the Swift PI, Neil Gehrels, and the Swift mission operations team for scheduling these observations.
