The Wind-Compressed Disk Model

Abstract

We discuss the effects of rotation on the structure of radiatively-driven winds. When the centrifugal support is large, there is a region, at low latitudes near the surface of the star, where the acceleration of gravity is larger than the radiative acceleration. Within this region, the fluid streamlines “fall” toward the equator. If the rotation rate is large, this region is big enough that the fluid from the northern hemisphere collides with that from the southern hemisphere. This produces standing shocks above and below the equator. Between the shocks, there is a dense equatorial disk that is confined by the ram pressure of the wind. A portion of the flow that enters the disk proceeds outward along the equator, but the inner portion accretes onto the stellar surface. Thus there is simultaneous outflow and infall in the equatorial disk. The wind-compressed disk forms only if the star is rotating faster than a threshold value, which depends on the ratio of wind terminal speed to stellar escape speed. The spectral type dependence of the disk formation threshold may explain the frequency distribution of Be stars. Observational tests of the wind-compressed disk model indicate that, although the geometry of the disk agrees with observations of Be stars, the density is a factor of 100 too small to produce the IR excess, Hα emission, and optical polarization, if current estimates of the mass-loss rates are used. However, recent calculations of the ionization balance in the wind indicate that the mass-loss rates of Be stars may be significantly underestimated.