Effect of Be Disk Evolution on Global One-Armed Oscillations

TL;DR

This study investigates how the evolution of density distribution in Be star disks affects their global one-armed oscillation modes, revealing changes during formation and dissipation that align with observations.

Contribution

It models the density evolution of Be star disks during formation and dissipation and analyzes the resulting changes in oscillation modes, including effects in binary systems.

Findings

Eigenfrequency increases during disk formation.

Higher eigenfrequencies during disk dissipation.

Qualitative agreement with observed trends.

Abstract

We study the effect of density distribution evolution on the global one-armed oscillation modes in low viscosity disks around isolated and binary Be stars. Observations show that some Be stars exhibit evidence of formation and dissipation of the equatorial disk. In this paper, we first calculate the density evolution in disks around isolated Be stars. To model the formation stage of the disk, we inject mass at a radius just outside the star at a constant rate for 30-50 years. As the disk develops, the density distribution approaches the form of the steady disk solution. Then, we turn off the mass injection to model the disk dissipation stage. The innermost part of the disk starts accretion, and a gap forms between the star and the disk. Next, we calculate the one-armed modes at several epochs. We neglect the effect of viscosity because the time-scale of oscillations is much shorter than the disk evolution time-scale for low viscosity. In the disk formation stage, the eigenfrequency increases with time toward the value for the steady state disk. On the other hand, one-armed eigenmodes in dissipating Be disks have significantly higher eigenfrequencies and narrower propagation regions. Observationally, such a change of mode characteristics can be taken as an evidence for gap opening around the star. In binary Be stars, the characteristics of the disk evolution and the eigenmodes are qualitatively the same as in isolated Be stars, but quantitatively they have shorter evolution time-scales and higher eigenfrequencies, which is in agreement with the observed trend.