Related papers: pi Aqr is another gamma-Cas object
To help constrain the origin of the peculiar X-ray emission of gamma Cas stars, we conducted a simultaneous optical and X-ray monitoring of pi Aqr in 2018. At that time, the star appeared optically bright and active, with a very strong…
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…
We investigate the short-term optical variability of two gamma Cas analogs, pi Aqr and BZ Cru, thanks to intensive ground-based spectroscopic and space-borne photometric monitorings. For both stars, low-amplitude (mmag) coherent photometric…
Gamma Cas analog sources are a subset of Be stars that emit intense and hard X-ray emission. Two competing ideas for their X-ray production mechanism are (a) the magnetic activities of the Be star and its disk and (b) the accretion from the…
High-resolution X-ray spectra of $\pi\,$Aqr, a $\gamma\,$Cas-type star, obtained with the Chandra/HETG grating spectrometer, revealed emission lines of H-like ions of Mg, Si, S, and Fe, a strong, hard continuum, and a lack of He-like ions,…
We present the results of recent multicolor photometric and high-resolution spectroscopic observations of the bright Be star Pi Aquarii. Observational data collected from the literature were used to study the star's variations over the last…
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…
The Be star $\pi$ Aquarii shows peculiar $\gamma$ Cas-type X-ray emission, likely caused by its outer disk interacting with a low-mass companion, probably a white dwarf. We study the long-term variability of its optical spectra to derive…
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…
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…
The Be star zeta Tau was recently reported to be a gamma Cas analog; that is, it displays an atypical (bright and hard) X-ray emission. The origin of these X-rays remains debated.The first X-ray observations indicated a very large…
The enigmatic X-ray emission from the bright optical star, $\gamma$ Cassiopeia, is a long-standing problem. $\gamma$ Cas is known to be a binary system consisting of a Be-type star and a low-mass ($M\sim 1\,M_\odot$) companion of unknown…
Advances in X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy have opened a new window on our universe and revealed a wide variety of binaries composed of a compact object and a Be star. In Be X-ray binaries, a neutron star accretes the Be disk and truncates…
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…
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…
Some Be stars display important variability of the strength of the emission lines formed in their disk. This is notably the case of pi Aqr. We present here the recent evolution of the Be disk in this system thanks to spectra collected by…
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…
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 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…
Using observations from Chandra, Swift and XMM-Newton, we investigate the high-energy properties of all known (18) Be+sdO systems as well as 7 additional Be binaries suspected to harbour stripped stars. The observed X-ray properties are…