# Iron line signatures in X-ray afterglows of GRB by BeppoSAX

## 1 Introduction

Distance - scale determination of Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) has been one of the most important achievements of astrophysics in recent years. Accurate and fast localization of the prompt and afterglow emission (Piro et al.1998a ; Costa et al. (1997)) by BeppoSAX (Piro, Scarsi & Butler (1995); Boella et al. (1997)) led to the identification of optical counterparts (van Paradijs et al. (1997)) and ultimately to spectral measurements of a redshift (Metzger et al. (1997)). While the extragalactic origin of GRB has gathered solid evidence in its support, the source of the large energy implied by their distance is still speculative.

The measurement of X-ray Fe lines emitted directly by the GRB or its afterglow could provide a direct measurement of the distance and probe into the nature of the central environment (Perna & Loeb (1998); Mészáros & Rees (1998); Boettcher et al. (1999); Ghisellini et al. (1998)). Neutron star – neutron star merging should happen in a fairly clean environment, with line intensities much below the sensitivity of current experiments. In contrast, Mészáros and Rees (1998) have shown that the circumburst environment created by the stellar wind before the explosion of the hypernova could yield a line of substantial intensity. A similarly favourable situation should be expected in a variation of the hypernova scenario, – the SupraNova (Vietri & Stella (1998)), where the GRB is shortly preceded by a supernova explosion with the ejection of an iron–rich massive shell. It is also conceivable that the impact of the relativistic shell that produced the original GRB on these ejecta could provide an additional energy input in the afterglow.

Motivated by these expectations, we have started a detailed analysis of afterglow spectra to look for the presence of features. The first and most promising candidate is GB970508. It is characterized by a large outbursting event during its afterglow phase (Piro et al.1998b ) and has the highest signal to noise ratio of the BeppoSAX GRB afterglows. Here we summarize the results obtained in this burst (reported more extensively in Piro et al.1999) and present the first results of the analysis in other afterglows.

## 2 Possible evidence of Fe line feature in GB970508

We have searched the X–ray spectrum of GB970508’s afterglow for an iron line, located at the system’s redhift (z = 0.835, Bloom et al. 1998); we found such a line with limited statistical significance ($`99.3\%`$) in the early part (first $`16h`$) of the afterglow; the line decreases in the later part of the observations ($`1`$ day after the burst) by at least a factor 2, enough to make it undetectable with current apparatus. Simultaneously with the line disappearance, the X–ray flux both rises and hardens ($`\alpha =0.4\pm 0.6`$, while $`\alpha =1.5\pm 0.6`$ before the reburst), consistent with the appearance of a new shock. Then, at the end of the outburst, the spectrum steepens.

## 3 Search of Fe line in other GRB’s afterglows

An extensive analysis is under way to search for features in all the X-ray afterglows observed by BeppoSAX. We report here the results derived in relatively bright afterglow sources (flux in the first part of the observation $`>3\times 10^{13}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{cm}^2\mathrm{s}^1`$) which have a spectroscopic redshift determination, thus allowing to fix the energy of the line. In the two GRB’s that meet these conditions (GRB971214 and GRB980613) we find upper limits that are roughly consistent with the intensity measured in GB970508 (Tab.1)

## 4 Origin of the line and constraints on the emitting region

It is most likely that the line of GB970508 is produced by fluorescence and recombination of Fe atoms ionized by the intense flux of the GRB and its afterglow (Piro et al. (1999), Lazzati et al.1999) In the early phases of the GRB the radiation field is so high that iron atoms are completely stripped of their electrons: the Compton temperature is very high and then recombination is not very efficient in producing line photons. When the flux decreases, about $`10^4s`$ after the burst, fluorescence becomes an effective process. We note, in passing, that the intensity of the line is therefore not correlated with the luminosity of the burst: for example, with a luminosity a factor of 10 larger, the medium would have remained completely ionized upto about 1 day after the burst, producing therefore a line with a lower intensity. The minimum mass needed to produce the line is (Piro et al.1999, Lazzati et al.1999) $`M_{min}=0.5M_{}A_{Fe}^1`$, where $`A_{Fe}`$ is the iron abundance normalized to the solar value. From the line variability, intensity and width we deduce that this medium should be located at a distance of $`3\times 10^{15}`$cm from the central source, it is moving with subrelativistic speed, it should have a large density ($`n>5\times 10^9cm^3`$), and it should lie sideways respect to the observer, otherways it would smear out the short timescale structure of the burst with Thomson scattering (Boettcher et al. (1999)).

In order to reach such distance, this material must have been pre–ejected by the source originating the burst, shortly (perhaps a year, for typical SN expansion speeds) before the burst. We stress that these observations contain two coincidences: on the one hand, this is the only burst in which a reburst and a line have been observed by BeppoSAX; on the other, the iron line disappears exactly at the moment of the reburst. We also point out that a line feature, with a similar significance, has been found by ASCA in another burst, GRB970828, which also shows an event of rebursting during the X-ray afterglow (Yoshida et al. (1999)). On the contrary, neither GB971214 nor GB98613 show rebursting (Costa 1999).

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank the BeppoSAX team for the support with observations. BeppoSAX is a program of the Italian space agency (ASI) with the participation of the Dutch space agency (NIVR).