Meeting of the Working Group on Active B Stars at the 25^th IAU General Assembly in Sydney, Australia

I. Overview of the Meeting

The Working Group on Active B Stars met during two morning sessions of the IAU General Assembly in Sydney, Australia from 09:00 - 12:30 on July 16, 2003 in Room PM2 of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre. The meeting was chaired by Gerrie Peters and called to order at about 09:05. A short business meeting preceded the scientific session. Summaries of the business meeting and contributed talks are presented below.

II. Business Meeting

a. Announcements

1. A proposal to continue IAU recognition of the Working Group (prepared by Stan Stefl and Gerrie Peters) was submitted prior to the 2003 April 1 deadline.

2. A proposal for an IAU Symposium or Colloquium in ˜2005 is in the development stages. The co-chairs of the SOC are Stan Stefl and Stan Owocki. Jon Bjorkman, who represented the SOC at this meeting, presented a short update on their efforts. Possible venues include Sapporo, Japan or Toledo, Ohio in the summer of 2005.

b. The Be Star Newsletter

G. Peters reported on the status of the Be Star Newsletter. The Newsletter continues to be the main source for information on new discoveries, ideas, manuscripts, and meetings that are of interest to the active B star community. Announcements, articles, and abstracts are usually published on the Newsletter website (http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~dam3ma/benews/) within 48 hours of being accepted. We are currently publishing one issue/year. A completed issue can be downloaded in pdf format from the website An exciting new feature is a series of invited articles (one or two per issue) on current topics. The bibliography was discontinued starting with Issue 36, published in 2003 April, as electronic searches of the literature have become convenient and easy to conduct.

Since the Newsletter has evolved into a mini-journal with archival value, all articles that are submitted are now refereed. Short announcements are internally refereed, while abstracts are published as submitted. It was suggested that we indicate both the received and acceptance dates, as well as how many times an article was revised. An appeal was made for more input to the Newsletter, especially new discoveries and ideas and suggestions for invited articles.

The Newsletter editors are:

G. J. Peters, editor-in-chief
D. R. Gies, Technical Editor
D. McDavid, Webmaster.

c. The SOC Elections

The election to replace the current members of the Scientific Organizing Committee whose terms expire at the end of this IAU GA was conducted by e-mail in 2003 March. David McDavid served as the election officer. The results are:

Term expiring in 2006:

• C. Aerts
• S. Owocki
• J. Porter
• T. Rivinius

Term expiring in 2009:

• J. Fabregat
• D. Gies
• H. Henrichs
• D. McDavid

Non-voting Members

• G. Peters, editor-in-chief of Be Star Newsletter
• S. Stefl, outgoing chairperson of WG

[S. Owocki was elected as the chair of the Working Group in 2003 September, ed.]

d. Action Items

1. Definition of a `Classical' Be Star

   At the 2000 Working Group meeting in Manchester, England Myron Smith put forth the suggestion that the community might adopt a formal definition for a classical Be star. In Issue No. 4 (p. 9) of the Be Star Newsletter published in September 1981 M. Jaschek, A. Slettebak, and C. Jaschek proposed definitions for a Be star, Be-shell star, pole-on star, and B[e] that are still used today. Since the term "classical Be star" is frequently used in contemporary literature, and in fact is the title of a review article by John Porter and Thomas Rivinius (PASP, 115, 1153) it appears reasonable to discuss adopting a concise definition for this class of objects. The following definition, a slight modification from Smith's original suggestion, was proposed:

   A non-accreting B star that shows or has shown Balmer emission lines that arise from a circumstellar envelope with a disk geometry.

   There was not much enthusiasm from the attendees on this issue. Some felt the definition was too restrictive and favored one that is more broad. Others thought that a concise definition is not possible. One attendee suggested that we begin a dialogue through the {\it Newsletter} website and resume the discussion at Prague in 2006.

2. Bylaws for the Working Group

   The Working Group has never established a formal set of bylaws that address such topics as a mission statement and how elections are to be conducted. One attendee suggested that we begin by looking at the IAU rules for working groups. If there is need for further clarification or regulation of our members, then we might adopt some specific bylaws. Another attendee stated that we should not adopt a set of bylaws "just to have them". In general the attendees tended to be in favor of establishing bylaws for the working group.

3. Duration for Working Group

   Current IAU rules state that working groups must have a specific mission or goal and must reapply for IAU recognition each triennium. How long should the Working Group on Active B Stars continue to exist? Some attendees voiced the feeling that Working Group should have a well-stated goal. This issue could also be discussed through the Newsletter website.

4. Waning interest in Working Group

   The attendance at Working Group meetings at IAU GAs has waned considerably since the large turnout in the 1980s and early 1990s. Only 19/160 members voted in the recent election. What can be done to generate interest in the working group. There were no good suggestions, except to provide the community with more lead time for voting and to advertise Working Group meetings well in advance.

09:30 - 10:00 Juan Fabregat "The Evolutionary Status of Be Stars in Clusters and in the Galactic Field"
10:00 - 10:30 Karen Bjorkman "Searching for Disks in the Magellanic Clouds"
Break
11:00 - 11:30 Jon Bjorkman "NLTE Monte Carlo Radiation Transfer in Circumstellar Disks"
11:30 - 11:45 John Percy "Self-Correlation Studies of Be Star Variability"
11:45 - 12:00 Andrzej Pigulski "Beta Cephei Stars in the LMC"
12:00 - 12:20 Geraldine Peters "Very Short-Term lpv in the Be Star  Aqr"
12:30 Session Ends

Summaries of these presentations follow.

Geraldine J. Peters