BRITEning up the Be Phenomenon

BRITEning up the Be Phenomenon

Dietrich Baade, Thomas Rivinius, Andrzej Pigulski, Despina Panoglou, Alex Carciofi, Gerald Handler, Rainer Kuschnig, Christophe Martayan, Andrea Mehner, Anthony F. J. Moffat, Herbert Pablo, Adam Popowicz, Slavek M. Rucinski, Gregg A. Wade, Werner W. Weiss and Konstanze Zwintz

Observations of 25 Ori much expand the picture derived of other early-type Be stars with BRITE and SMEI. Two instead of one difference frequencies rule the variability: (a) The lower one, 0.0129 c/d, is the frequency of events with full amplitudes of 100-200 mmag which may signal mass loss possibly driven by the higher one, 0.1777 c/d. (b) Much of the entire power spectrum is a tightly woven network of combination frequencies: (i) Below 0.25 c/d, numerous frequencies are difference frequencies. (ii) Many frequencies above 2.5 c/d can be represented as sum frequencies and in a few cases as harmonics. (iii) Many frequencies between 1.1 and 1.75 c/d can be portrayed as parents of combination frequencies. The number and fraction of combination frequencies increases steeply with decreasing amplitude and accuracy of the frequency matching.

Proceedings of the Polish Astronomical Society, vol. 8, 69-76 (2018)

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