Anomalous X-Ray emission in GRB060904B: a Nickel line?

TL;DR

This paper investigates the origin of an anomalous spectral line in GRB060904B's X-ray afterglow, proposing a reflection scenario involving Nickel-rich material and deriving physical parameters consistent with a supernova shell origin.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed physical model explaining the spectral line as a Nickel emission from a funnel or supernova shell, advancing understanding of GRB afterglow emission mechanisms.

Findings

Reflection scenario best explains the spectral line

Nickel mass estimated at 0.1 to 0.4 solar masses

Supernova shell expansion inferred to start 3000 seconds before GRB

Abstract

The detection of an extra component in GRB060904B X-ray spectra in addition to the standard single power-law behaviour has recently been reported in the literature. This component can be fit with different models; in particular the addition of a spectral line provides the best representation.In this paper we investigate the physical properties that the surrounding medium must have in order to produce a spectral feature that can explain the detected emission. We analyse and discuss how and if the detected spectral excess fits in different theoretical models developed to explain the nature of line emission during the afterglow phase of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). Trasmission and reflection models have been considered. Given the high value (>>1) of the Thomson optical depth, the emission is likely to arise in a reflection scenario. Within reflection models, the external reflection geometry fails to predict the observed luminosity. On the contrary, the detected feature can be explained in a funnel scenario with typical opening angle theta of 5 degrees, Nickel mass of the order of 0.1 M_o and T=10^6 K. For theta=20 degrees, assuming the reprocessing material to be the SN shell, the detected emission implies a Nickel mass of 0.4 M_o at T=10^7 K and a metallicity 10 times the solar value. If the giant X-ray flare that dominates the early XRT light curve is identified with the ionizing source, the SN expansion began 3000 s before the GRB event.