High-resolution spectroscopy of gamma-ray bursts with the transient gamma-ray spectrometer

A search for spectral lines in gamma-ray bursts detected with the Transient Gamma-Ray Spectrometer has been unable to confirm their existence. The spectrometer, aboard the Wind spacecraft, has detected gamma-ray bursts and other transients since 1995. We have performed a systematic search for narrow spectral lines in gamma-ray bursts detected with this instrument that augments and extends the results of a similar search of bursts detected with BATSE. This search procedure tests for statistically significant lines at all possible times and durations during a burst using the method of maximum likelihood and C-statistic. Simulations demonstrated the effectiveness of this procedure, particularly on Poisson distributed data, for distinguishing real features from statistical fluctuations. The most promising line candidates were consistent with chance fluctuations, given the large number of spectra searched.