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Using Spectropolarimetry to Determine Envelope Geometry and Test Variability Models for Hot Star Circumstellar Envelopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Karen S. Bjorkman
Karen S. Bjorkman*
Affiliation:
Ritter Observatory, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Toledo,Toledo, OH 43606-3390, USA

Abstract

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A survey and monitoring of the spectropolarimetric characteristics of hot stars over the entire visible wavelength range has been carried out over the past 8 years using the HPOL instrument at the Pine Bluff Observatory. Data from these projects is being used to derive physical characteristics of circumstellar envelopes. Quantitative modeling of the polarization, in combination with optical interferometry, has shown that the circumstellar disks of classical Be stars are geometrically thin, consistent with either the wind-compressed disk model or with hydrostatically supported Keplerian disks. Furthermore, spectropolarimetric variability, which is significant in a large fraction of the hot stars observed, provides information about changes occuring in the circumstellar envelope. For example, polarimetric changes provide a critical test of the one-armed density wave models proposed to explain observed V/R variations.

Type
Section I Observations of Non-spherical Winds
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 169: Variable and Non-spherical Stellar Winds in Luminous Hot Stars , 1999 , pp. 19 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Springer-Verlag 1999

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