Short-Term Wind and Photospheric Activity in Be Stars Deduced from Campaigns with the IUE Spacecraft

Abstract

AbstractFrom 1985–96 twelve multiwavelength campaigns on 15 Be stars were carried through using data from the IUE spacecraft to study the phenomenon of short-term spectroscopic and photometric variability. Highlights from recent work on this database are presented here. Three classes of variability have been identified: 1) The FUV flux and wind strength are correlated, 2) The FUV flux varies cyclically but wind variability if present does not correlate with the flux, and 3) The wind strength cyclically varies but does not correlate with light variations. For Class 1 the period is usually less than the star’s expected rotational period, but for Classes 2 & 3, the period is sometimes close to Prot. We have employed a cross-correlation technique to extract information on the nature of the line profile variability (lpv). Evidence for nonradial pulsations (NRP) in low-order modes is found for objects in Classes 1 & 2, the light variations appear to be caused by a modulation of the star's photospheric temperature, and the hot crest of the NRP wave is in front when the star is bright. For Class 1 stars the wind is enhanced over the hot crest. The mass loss in Class 3 may originate from a localized active region on the star and the importance of NRP in these stars remains unknown.