The exceptionally extended flaring activity in the X-ray afterglow of GRB 050730 observed with swift and XMM-Newton

Aims. We observed the high redshift (z = 3.969) GRB 050730 with Swift and XMM-Newton to study its prompt and afterglow emission. Methods. We carried out a detailed spectral and temporal analysis of Swift and XMM-Newton observations. Results. The X-ray afterglow of GRB 050730 was found to decline along with time with superimposed intense flaring activity that extended over more than two orders of magnitude in time. Seven distinct re-brightening events starting from 236 s and up to 41.2 ks after the burst were observed. The underlying decay of the afterglow was well described by a double broken power-law model with