Active phenomena in the circumstellar environment of the Herbig Ae star HD 31648

¹ Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science at Pulkovo, Pulkovo 65–1, 196140 Saint-Petersburg, Russia e-mail: pogodin@gao.spb.ru
² Isaac Newton Institute of Chile, St.Petersburg Branch, Russia

Corresponding author: N. G. Beskrovnaya, beskr@gao.spb.ru

Received: 10 July 2002
Accepted: 18 September 2003

Abstract

We present the results of observations of the Herbig Ae star HD 31648 including high-resolution spectroscopy near the Hα, He i ł 5876 Å and DNa i lines, multi-color photometry and polarimetry. These observations have revealed many features of the observational appearance of HD 31648 similar to those of the “classical” Herbig Ae stars. Among them are spectral manifestations of both the mass loss and the disk accretion onto the star and certain types of line profile variations. The totality of the observed properties of HD 31648 provides evidence in favor of complicated structure in the stellar wind zone, exhibiting latitudinal stratification and containing local inhomogeneities in the form of outflowing streams and density condensations. Structural variations of the stellar wind have been found to correlate with changes in the accretion process in the envelope. The circumstellar environment of HD 31648 is supposed to contain dust particles of different forms manifesting themselves, in particular, in the variable multi-component intrinsic polarization.