Related papers: A propelling neutron star in the enigmatic Be-star…
$\gamma$ Cas is the prototype of a small population of B0-B1.5 III-V classical Be (cBe) stars that emit anomalous and hard X-rays with a unique array of properties. $\gamma$ Cas is known to host, like other cBe stars, a decretion disk and…
Massive B and Be stars produce X-rays from shocks in high velocity winds with temperatures of a few million degrees and maximum X-ray luminosities of $\approx$ 10$^{31}$ erg/s. Surprisingly, a sub-group of early Be stars exhibits > 20 times…
\gamma Cas is the prototypical classical Be star and is best known for its variable hard X-ray emission. To elucidate the reasons for this emission, we mounted a multiwavelength campaign in 2010 centered around 4 XMM observations. The…
Long considered as the "odd man out" among X-ray emitting Be stars, \gamma Cas (B0.5e IV) is now recognized as the prototype of a class of stars that emit hard thermal X-rays. Our classification differs from the historical use of the term…
Gamma Cassiopeiae is an enigmatic Be star with unusually strong hard X-ray emission. The Suzaku observatory detected six rapid X-ray spectral hardening events called "softness dips" in a ~100 ksec duration observation in 2011. All the…
$\gamma$ Cas stars are a $\sim$1% minority among classical Be stars with hard but only moderately strong continuous thermal X-ray flux and mostly very early-B spectral type. The X-ray flux has been suggested to originate from matter…
The analogues of $\gamma$ Cassiopea are binary early type Be stars which are X-ray bright with hard thermal spectra. The nature of companions in these stars and mechanisms of their X-ray emission remain enigmatic. Among the proposed ideas…
A growing number of early Be stars discovered in X-ray surveys exhibit X-ray luminosities intermediate between those of normal stars and those of most Be/X-ray binaries in quiescence. Their X-ray spectra are also much harder than those of…
A subset of Be stars, typified by the naked-eye star gamma Cas, exhibits unusually bright and hard X-ray emission, the origin of which has remained debated for five decades. We performed high-resolution X-ray spectroscopic monitoring of…
gamma Cas is known for its hard and intense X-ray emission that could trace accretion by a compact companion, wind interaction with a hot sub-dwarf companion, or magnetic interaction between the star and its Be decretion disc. These…
Context. Be stars are physically complex systems that continue to challenge theory to understand their rapid rotation, complex variability and decretion disks. $\gamma$ Cassiopeiae ($\gamma$ Cas) is one such star but is even more curious…
A growing number of early Be stars exhibit unusually hard X-ray spectra and luminosities intermediate between those typical of early type stars and those emitted by most Be/X-ray binaries in quiescence. We report on XMM-Newton and optical…
gamma Cassiopeiae (gCas) is a B0.5e star with peculiar X-ray emission properties and yet the prototype of its own small class. In this paper we examine the X-ray spectra for a 2004 XMM-Newton observation and a previously published 2001…
We present the results of a broad-band X-ray study of the enigmatic Be star Gamma Cassiopeiae (herein gamma Cas) based on observations made with both the Suzaku and INTEGRAL observatories. gamma Cas has long been recognized as the…
Be/X-ray binaries are systems formed by a massive Be star and a magnetized neutron star, usually in an eccentric orbit. The Be star has strong equatorial winds occasionally forming a circumstellar disk. When the neutron star intersects the…
The origin of the bright and hard X-ray emission flux among the gamma Cas subgroup of B-emission line (Be) stars may be caused by gas accretion onto an orbiting white dwarf (WD) companion. Such Be+WD binaries are the predicted outcome of a…
This paper will review the status of our observations and understanding of Be stars in X-ray binary systems. In virtually all cases the binary partner to the Be star is a neutron star. The circumstellar disk provides the accretion fuel and…
The origin of the hard, bright X-ray emission that defines the gamma Cas analog class of Be stars remains an outstanding question in Be star literature. This work explores the possibility that the X-ray flux is produced by accretion onto a…
Gamma~Cas stars are early-type Be stars that exhibit an unusually hard and bright thermal X-ray emission. One of the proposed scenarios to explain these properties postulates the existence of a neutron star companion in the propeller stage,…
We present wide-field multi-wavelength observations of $\gamma$ Cassiopeiae (or $\gamma$~Cas for short) in order to study its feedback toward the interstellar environment. A large expanding cavity is discovered toward $\gamma$~Cas in the…