Infrared spectroscopy of Be stars

Abstract

FeII emission lines are present in a variety of astrophysical objects and, in particular, in Be stars, where in some situations they can also be seen in absorption. Selvelli & Araujo (1984) studied a sample of classical Be stars that have FeII emission lines in the optical region. The analysis of IUE spectra of those stars revealed that, for the majority of the objects, neither absorption nor emission FeII features were present in the UV. The conclusion was that their data could not support excitation of FeII by continuum fluorescence. On the other hand, FeIII of circumstellar origin is often seen in absorption in the UV spectra of Be stars (Snow & Stalio 1987 and references therein). This could be an indication that the optical FeII emission lines are originated from recombination and cascade. However, Selvelli & Araujo (1984) argued that, since the multiplet UV 191 of FeII does not appear in emission, that mechanism is probably not relevant. In the present work we report new spectroscopic observations in the near infrared of a sample of 60 Be stars, including the prominent FeII 999.7 nm emission line. This line is also present in the spectra of superluminous B stars for which mass loss rates have recently been estimated (Lopes, Damineli-Neto & Freitas Pacheco 1992). We derived mass loss rates from the infrared line luminosities, in agreement with those derived by other methods. We also found a new evidence of the Be envelope flattening through the FeII/Paδ line ratio.