Detection of a Hot Subdwarf Companion to the Be Star FY Canis Majoris

TL;DR

This study detects a hot subdwarf companion to the Be star FY Canis Majoris using UV spectroscopy, revealing its properties, orbital dynamics, and interactions with the Be star's circumstellar disk, advancing understanding of binary evolution.

Contribution

First spectroscopic detection and characterization of a hot subdwarf companion to FY Canis Majoris, including its orbit, spectral properties, and interaction with the Be star's disk.

Findings

Subdwarf has T_eff = 45±5 kK, mass ≈ 1.3 M_sun, radius ≈ 0.6 R_sun.

Subdwarf contributes about 4% of the FUV flux.

Evidence of disk heating and wind interactions between the subdwarf and Be star.

Abstract

The rapid rotation of Be stars may be caused in some cases by past mass and angular momentum accretion in an interacting binary in which the mass donor is currently viewed as a small, hot subdwarf stripped of its outer envelope. Here we report on the spectroscopic detection of such a subdwarf in the Be binary system FY Canis Majoris from the analysis of data acquired by the IUE spacecraft and KPNO Coude Feed Telescope over the course of 16 and 21 years, respectively. We present a double-lined spectroscopic orbit for the binary based upon radial velocities from the IUE spectra and use the orbital solutions with a Doppler tomography algorithm to reconstruct the components' UV spectra. The subdwarf is hot (T_eff = 45+/-5 kK) and has a mass of about 1.3 M_sun and a radius of about 0.6 R_sun. It contributes about 4% as much flux as the Be star does in the FUV. We also present observations of the H-alpha and He I 6678 emission features that are formed in the circumstellar disk of the Be star. Orbital flux and velocity variations in the He I 6678 profile indicate that much of the emission forms along the disk rim facing the hot subdwarf where the disk is probably heated by the incident radiation from the subdwarf. A study of the FUV infall shell lines discovered in the 1980s confirms their episodic presence but reveals that they tend to be found around both quadrature phases, unlike the pattern in Algol binaries. Phase-dependent variations in the UV N V doublet suggest the presence of a N-enhanced wind from the subdwarf and a possible shock-interaction region between the stars where the subdwarf's wind collides with the disk of the Be star.