High Resolution Gratings Spectroscopy of GRBs 030382 and 041006 with Chandra LETGS

Abstract

We present high resolution X-ray spectroscopy of two recent GRB afterglows observed with the Low Energy Transmission Gratings on Chandra. The afterglows to GRBs 030328 and 041006 are detected beginning 15.33 and 16.8 hours after each burst, respectively, and are observed to fade in time during each ~90 ksec observation. We fit for the continuum emission in each full data set and for the data sliced into half and quarter time sections. For both afterglows, the continuum emission is well described by an absorbed power-law model, and the model parameters describing the absorption and spectral slope do not appear to evolve in time. We perform a careful search for deviations from the model continua for the full and time-sliced data and find no evidence for significant (>~3sigma) narrow emission/absorption lines or edges. The lack of detections implies that line emission--if it is a general feature in GRB X-ray afterglows--occurs early (t~0.3 days in the source frame) and/or is short-lived (dt<~10 ksec). We also comment on synchrotron fireball models for the X-ray and optical data.