The brightness and proximity of many classical Be stars makes them perfect laboratories for studying the physics of astrophysical disks. They are also among the most popular targets for optical/IR interferometers, which are able to fully resolve their circumstellar disks, to which much of the recent progress in our understanding of these enigmatic objects is owed. The current consensus is that classical Be stars eject material from the stellar surface into Keplerian orbits, thus forming a disk, whose subsequent evolution is governed by turbulent viscosity, which is the basis of the so-called viscous decretion disk (VDD) model. Among the main results of the present work is arguably the best-constrained model of a particular Be star β CMi. The VDD predictions were confronted also with radio observations, which allowed for the first determination of the physical extent of a Be disk. This result subsequently led to the detection of a binary companion, which is truncating the disk by tidal forces. Extending the sample to include five more targets led to revealing a similar outer disk structure in all of them. The range of explanations includes the most plausible scenario, in which the truncation of Be disks by (unseen) companions is much more common than previously thought.

To rigorously study hot stars, we need to determine their properties as accurately as possible. This thesis focuses on improving the accuracy of parameters of two hot stars and contributes to the collection of stars with more known parameters. While photometric and spectroscopic data sets on hot stars δ Ori A and ω CMa are plentiful, the former is a triple star that suffers from having a faint spectrum of the secondary, which complicates its analysis, and the latter is a Be star, the origin, formation, and long-term variability of whose gaseous envelopes (veils) remain unexplained. Using mathematical techniques (Fourier transforms) and modelling software PHOEBE 1, properties of δ Ori A are determined, and conjecture on the presence of a circumstellar envelope in δ Ori A might be true by considering the shape changes of the Hα line. A conjecture that period changes of ω CMa correlate to the mass of the circumstellar envelopes seems to be proved true by considering variations of radial velocities, V/R ratio, and determining profile line asymmetry. 1

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I present a comprehensive investigation of fast stars in the Milky Way, from brisk disc stars to stars escaping the Galaxy. My thesis is that fast stars are the smoking guns of extreme stellar collisions and explosions, and so can act as an intermediary to studying these theoretically-unconquered astrophysical processes. In Chapter 1 I give a history of fast stars, address what it means for a star to be fast, and describe the processes that accelerate stars. I concisely summarise the Gaia mission, whose recent data releases heavily influenced this thesis. Supernovae in binary systems can fling away the companion; if a runaway companion can be associated with a supernova remnant, then together they reveal the evolution that led to the supernova. However, these associations are difficult to establish. In Ch. 2, I develop a sophisticated Bayesian methodology to search the nearest ten remnants for a companion, by combining data from Gaia DR1 with a 3D dust-map and binary population synthesis. With Gaia DR2, I will identify companions of tens of supernova remnants and thus open a new window to studying late-stage stellar evolution. It is unknown why 17% of B stars are spinning near break-up; these stars are termed Be stars because of emission lines from their ejected material. Their rapid spin could be due to mass transfer, but in Ch. 3 I show this would create runaway Be stars. I demonstrate using a hierarchical Bayesian model that these exist in sufficient numbers, and thus that all Be stars may arise from mass transfer. The stars escaping the Milky Way are termed hypervelocity stars. In Ch. 4, I overturn the consensus that the hypervelocity stars originated in the Galactic centre by showing that a Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) origin better explains their distribution on the sky. In Ch. 5 I present three ground-breaking hypervelocity results with Gaia DR2: 1) only 41 of the 524 hypervelocity star candidates are truly escaping, 2) at least one of the hypervelocity stars originates in the LMC, and 3) the discovery of three hypervelocity white dwarf runaways from thermonuclear supernovae.

The well-known spectroscopic binary ϕ Per is a peculiar compact system, composed of a Be star with an O-type subdwarf companion. A set of nearly 400 spectra in the red and blue regions from Ondřejov and Potsdam Observatories as well as spectra published in the BeSS database were examined. From the radial velocities of Hα, Hβ, and Hγ emission lines and FUV observations from the IUE and HST, a new precise ephemeris was determined. The revised values of M sin3 (i) are 11.84 and 1.48 M (with uncertainties of 0.64 and 0.09 M ), re- spectively, for the primary and secondary. In addition, the system shows cyclic variations (with a time scale of about 5 years) in the profiles of Balmer lines, manifested in their radial velocities, central intensities and V/R ratios. Understanding complex stellar systems requires combining multiple types of ob- servations and creating models of sufficient complexity. In our case, a combination of interferometric visibilities from the CHARA/VEGA array, spectral energy dis- tribution as well as individual spectral lines were used. Radiative-transfer compu- tations were performed with the program PYSHELLSPEC, and physical parameters of the ϕ Per primary and the surrounding disc were derived. They correspond to an evolved system, in which most of mass was transferred from the secondary to...

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T19:25:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TAIZAALISSUL.pdf: 1898582 bytes, checksum: 83c6ea30230ef658e8eedb8018b6d20d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-04-08 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / One of the main theories to explain the Be phenomenon is that they are hot stars with rotation speed close to the critical limit, ejecting matter and forming a gaseous disk around. Its geometry and kinematics is still a controversial subject. Those objects present H® line in emission among other phenomena. In this work are present observations of hot stars in young open clusters and the detection of Be stars. The study of Be stars in open clusters is a matter of interest because these objects keep the initial signatures of their initial formation. Most of Be stars known in open clusters were identified inside the Milky Way Galaxy, but not all were observed. Most of the observations concentrate on seeking the characteristics lines in emission for stars with low magnitude. As a consequence the complete scenario of incidence of Be stars in open clusters is still uncertain, what incentives its observation. In this work, we studied thirty two stars of the spectral type B, from NGC 4755 and NGC 6530 stellar clusters. As a first step we accomplished an analysis of the stars that present the Be phenomenon. Than, we estimate physical parameters of B and Be stars using the lines of HeI 4471 and MgII 4481 Å. We also accomplished a comparison among the vseni values calculated by several methods including the AMOEBA algorithm and other two methods elaborated using the IDL platform. For high-speeds (» 300 Km/s), there is a superestimative of the FWHM method for both clusters. But for low-speeds, there is consistence between values of vseni obtained with the FWHM method and AMOEBA. / Uma das principais teorias para explicar o fenômeno Be é que são estrelas quentes com velocidade de rotação próxima da velocidade crítica, ejetando matéria formando um disco gasoso ao seu redor. Sua geometria e cinemática ainda é um assunto calorosamente discutido. Esses objetos apresentam emissões nas linhas de Balmer, entre outros fenômenos. Neste trabalho são apresentadas observações de estrelas quentes em aglomerados jovens abertos e a detecção de Be nestes. O estudo de estrelas Be em aglomerados abertos é de particular interesse porque estes objetos guardam as assinaturas das condições iniciais de sua formação. A maioria das estrelas Be conhecidas em aglomerados abertos foram identificadas na Via Láctea, a maioria das observações concentra-se em procurar as linhas em emissão características nas estrelas de baixa magnitude. Como conseqüência a completeza de incidência de estrelas Be em aglomerados abertos é incerta, o que leva a um estímulo para o seu estudo. Nesse trabalho, foram estudadas trinta e duas estrelas do tipo espectral B, selecionadas dos aglomerados NGC 4755 e NGC 6530. Em uma primeira etapa, foi realizada uma análise das estrelas que apresentam o fenômeno Be. Depois, foram determinados os parâmetros físicos de estrelas B e Be utilizando as linhas de HeI 4471 e MgII 4481 Å. Foi realizada, ainda, uma comparação entre os valores de vseni calculados com o algoritmo AMOEBA e os valores obtidos com os programas elaborados no IDL. Para altas velocidades (» 300 Km/s), há superestimativas do método FWHM, para ambos os aglomerados. Mas para baixas velocidades, há consistência entre os valores de vseni obtidos com o método FWHM e AMOEBA.

The spectroscopic and photometric observations of the optical counterparts to the Be/X-ray binary systems GRO J2058+42 and V0332+53 (BQ Cam), taken with RTT150 (Russian-Turkish 1.5 meter Telescope), are presented in this study. The distance, color and the reddening estimates for both sources, obtained via photometric observations, are consistent with the previous results. The results of our spectroscopic observations performed between May 2006 and June 2008 for optical counterpart to GRO J2058+42 indicate that the double-peaked emission line profile turns into a single-peaked emission after the last outburst of the system. Furthermore, the spectra of the source show clear evidence for the changes in the ratio of the double peaks of H alpha emission line indicative of the precession of the high-density regions confined in the disk. Unlike the spectra of counterpart to GRO J2058+42, the spectra of BQ Cam, taken between September 2006 and December 2007, exhibit single-peaked H alpha and HeI (Lambda 7065 Angstrom) emission lines. In addition, the equivalent width values of H alpha emission lines, shifts from the the laboratory wavelengths for H alpha and HeI emission lines and the variation in optical brightness of BQ Cam show a close correlation.