Be Stars Seen by Space Photometry

TL;DR

This paper reviews the potential of space photometry to study Be stars, emphasizing their variability and the importance of understanding stellar-circumstellar interactions to solve disk feeding mysteries.

Contribution

It highlights the diverse variability in Be stars and underscores the significance of space-based photometry in unraveling their complex behaviors and disk feeding mechanisms.

Findings

Multiple types of variability observed in Be stars.

Pure pulsation modes are insufficient to explain all variability.

Circumstellar interactions are key to understanding disk feeding.

Abstract

Classical Be stars are introduced as object class and their particular potential for space based photometry is highlighted. A brief summary of the various types of variability observed in Be stars makes clear that an interpretation of every single frequency as a pulsation mode falls short, instead there are as well purely circumstellar variations and those that originate in the immediate stellar to circumstellar interaction region. In particular the latter offer great potential, as they are linked to one of the few remaining great riddles of Be stars, namely how they feed their disks.