Using Photometry to Probe the Circumstellar Environment of delta Scorpii

Abstract

We acquired Johnson BV photometry of the binary Be disk system delta~Scorpii during its 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 observing seasons and used it to probe the innermost regions of the disk. We found that several disk building events have occurred during this time, resulting in an overall brightening in the V-band and reddening of the system. In addition to these long-term trends, we found cyclical variability in each observing season on timescales between 60 and 100 days. We were able to reproduce the changes in the magnitude and colour of delta Sco using our theoretical models and found that variable mass-loss rates in the range 2.5-7.0x10^{-9} M_{sun}/yr over ~35 days can reproduce the observed increase in brightness.

arXiv comment15 pages, emulateapj

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Classical Be Stars: Rapidly Rotating B Stars with Viscous Keplerian Decretion Disks
• The X-ray emission of the gamma Cassiopeiae stars
• Photometric Variability of the Be Star Population
• The Large Scale Behaviour in the Disk of $\delta$ Scorpii from 2000-2018
• Long-term optical and X-ray variability of the Be/X-ray binary H 1145-619: discovery of an on-going retrograde density wave
• Computing the Photometric and Polarimetric Variability of Be Stars