GCN 43869: EP260227a: Einstein Probe detection of an X-ray transient and refined analysis

Y. Wang (PMO), H. C. Ding, T, Wu, Y. J. Yi (BNU), W. F. Wen (SZTU),  Z. X. Ling(NAOC) on behalf of the Einstein Probe (EP) team:

We report on the detection of an X-ray transient by the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) on board the Einstein Probe (EP) mission, designated EP260227a. The transient triggered EP-WXT (ID: 01709258681) at 2026-02-27T20:12:29 (UTC). The WXT position of the source is R.A. = 223.101 deg, DEC = -11.408 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 2.586 arcmin in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic). The refined analysis of the WXT data shows that the event started at T0=2026-02-27T20:07:52 (UTC), and lasted for approximately 250 seconds. The average WXT 0.5-4 keV spectrum can be fitted with an absorbed power law with a fixed Galactic hydrogen column density of 9.3×10^20 cm^-2 and a photon index of 0.8 (-0.6/+0.6). The derived average unabsorbed 0.5-4 keV flux is 4.1 (-1.3/+1.7) × 10^(-10) erg/s/cm^2.

A follow-up observation with the Follow-up X-ray Telescope (FXT) was performed automatically. Within the WXT error circle, an uncatalogued X-ray source was detected at R.A. = 223.0833 deg, DEC = -11.4065 deg (J2000) with an uncertainty of 10 arcsec in radius (90% C.L. statistical and systematic). The average 0.5-10 keV spectrum can be fitted with an absorbed power law with a Galactic hydrogen column density of 2.2 (-0.2/+0.2) × 10^21 cm^-2, and a photon index of 1.47 (-0.04/+0.04). The derived average unabsorbed 0.5-10 keV flux is 8.3 (-0.1/+0.1) ×10^(-10) erg/s/cm^2. The uncertainties are at the 90% confidence level for the above parameters. The optical counterpart was reported by Eyles-Ferris et al. (GCN 43867) and Li et al. (GCN 43868).

Launched on January 9, 2024, EP is a space X-ray observatory to monitor the soft X-ray sky with X-ray follow-up capability (Yuan et al. 2022, Handbook of X-ray and Gamma-ray Astrophysics).