Be Stars with Truncated H-alpha Disks

Binarity is a open issue in the study of Be stars (which are main sequence stars surrounded by a circumstellar disk), and the binary fraction of Be stars and the role binarity plays in circumstellar disk formation are important questions. Recent research suggests that many, if not all, Be stars are close binaries based on the ubiquity of the downturn in the radio of their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). I have a recent sample of ~100  Be star disk density models based on fits to their H-alpha profiles, some of which resulted in "truncated disks." A truncated disk is one in which the outer disk radius occurs at an optical depth significantly in excess of unity. In this project, the student will use the results of radiative transfer modelling to predict the correlation between SED downturns and H-alpha truncation, and they will test their correlation with the aforementioned sample. Implications for using these results as a proxy method for indirectly detecting binary or planetary of the Be stars companions will be investigated.