The X-ray emission lines in GRB afterglows: the evidence for the two-component jet model

Abstract

Recently, X-ray emission lines have been observed in X-ray afterglows of several $γ$-ray bursts. It is a major breakthrough for understanding the nature of the progenitors. It is proposed that the X-ray emission lines can be well explained by the Geometry-Dominated models, but in these models the illuminating angle is much larger than that of the collimated jet of the $γ$-ray bursts(GRBs). For GRB 011211, we obtain the illuminating angle is about $θ\sim45^{\circ}$, while the angle of GRB jet is only $3.6^{\circ}$, so we propose that the outflow of the GRBs with emission lines should have two distinct components. The wide component illuminates the reprocessing material, and produces the emission lines, while the narrow one produces the $γ$-ray bursts. The observations show that the energy for producing the emission lines is higher than that of the GRBs. In this case, when the wide component dominates the afterglows, a bump will appear in the GRBs afterglows. For GRB 011211, the emergence time of the bump is less than 0.05 days after the GRB, it is obviously too early for the observation to catch it. With the presence of the X-ray emission lines there should also be a bright emission component between the UV and the soft X-rays. These features can be tested by the $Swift$ satellite in the near future.