BE STAR DISK MODELS IN CONSISTENT VERTICAL HYDROSTATIC EQUILIBRIUM

Abstract

A popular model for the circumstellar disks of Be stars is that of a geometrically thin disk with a density in the equatorial plane that drops as a power law of distance from the star. It is usually assumed that the vertical structure of such a disk (in the direction parallel to the stellar rotation axis) is governed by the hydrostatic equilibrium set by the vertical component of the star's gravitational acceleration. Previous radiative equilibrium models for such disks have usually been computed assuming a fixed density structure. This introduces an inconsistency as the gas density is not allowed to respond to temperature changes and the resultant disk model is not in vertical, hydrostatic equilibrium. In this work, we modify the BEDISK code of Sigut & Jones so that it enforces a hydrostatic equilibrium consistent with the temperature solution. We compare the disk densities, temperatures, Hα line profiles, and near-IR excesses predicted by such models with those computed from models with a fixed density structure. We find that the fixed models can differ substantially from the consistent hydrostatic models when the disk density is high enough that the circumstellar disk develops a cool (T 10, 000 K) equatorial region close to the parent star. Based on these new hydrostatic disks, we also predict an approximate relation between the (global) density-averaged disk temperature and the T eff of the central star, covering the full range of central Be star spectral types.