Classical Be stars

TL;DR

Classical Be stars are rapidly rotating B-type stars with gaseous disks, exhibiting variability and complex physics influenced by pulsation, binarity, and disk dynamics, with ongoing research into their formation and evolution.

Contribution

This review summarizes the properties, history, and current research topics of Classical Be stars, highlighting recent advances in understanding their variability, disk physics, and binary interactions.

Findings

Be stars exhibit nonradial pulsations and disk variability.

Binarity plays a significant role in Be star formation.

Circumstellar disks serve as proxies for accretion disk physics.

Abstract

Classical Be stars, the "e" standing for the presence of spectroscopic line emission, are main sequence stars of spectral type B that are able to form a gaseous disk in Keplerian motion from star-ejected matter. The main driver of this capability is the rapid surface rotation, which might be acquired via binary interaction or through internal stellar evolution, but additional mechanisms, such as nonradial pulsation, usually enable a star to become a Be star well below the actual critical rotation threshold. The angular momentum loss through the disk then keeps the star below the critical rotation value for the rest of its main sequence life span. It is one of the oldest standing research fields of astronomy, since the first discovery of a Be star in 1866. The article, therefore, not only presents the properties of Be stars, but as well the history of the field. The current main research topics, discussed in greater detail, are: 1) the variability of the central object and the nature of Be stars as nonradially pulsating stars, 2) the physics of the viscosity governed circumstellar disk and its variability, which can serve as proxy for the more common, but typically harder to observe viscuous accretion disks, and 3) the role of binarity both in the formation of Be stars as rapid rotators, and as well their impact on the observed properties of these stars.