TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 13043 SUBJECT: GRB 120311A: Swift-XRT refined Analysis DATE: 12/03/11 22:58:04 GMT FROM: Andrea Melandri at INAF-OAB A. Melandri (INAF/OAB), P. D'Avanzo (INAF/OAB) and C. B. Markwardt (NASA/GSFC) report on behalf of the Swift-XRT team: We have analysed 15 ks of XRT data for GRB 120311A (Markwardt et al. GCN Circ. 13032), from 3.2 ks to 34.5 ks after the BAT trigger. The data are entirely in Photon Counting (PC) mode. The enhanced XRT position for this burst was given by Goad et al. (GCN. Circ 13035). The late-time light curve (from T0+3.2 ks) can be modelled with a single power-law decay with a decay index of alpha=1.09 (+0.13,-0.12). A spectrum formed from the PC mode data can be fitted with an absorbed power-law with a photon spectral index of 2.03 (+0.27, -0.25). The best-fitting absorption column is 2.6 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2, in excess of the Galactic value of 1.0 x 10^21 cm^-2 (Kalberla et al. 2005). The counts to observed (unabsorbed) 0.3-10 keV flux conversion factor deduced from this spectrum is 4.0 x 10^-11 (6.2 x 10^-11) erg cm^-2 count^-1. A summary of the PC-mode spectrum is thus: Total column: 2.6 (+0.9, -0.8) x 10^21 cm^-2 Galactic foreground: 1.0 x 10^21 cm^-2 Excess significance: 3.2 sigma Photon index: 2.03 (+0.27, -0.25) The results of the XRT-team automatic analysis are available at http://www.swift.ac.uk/xrt_products/00517469. This circular is an official product of the Swift-XRT team.