Spectropolarimetry of Young and Evolved Stars

Abstract

Circumstellar disks play an important role in many stages of the evolution of stars. However, it is only possible to directly image circumstellar disks for a few of the nearest stars. For massive stars, the situation is even more di±cult, as they are on average further away than the more numerous low mass stars. In order to shed light on such disks we are pursuing a programme of spectropolarimetry. This technique can reveal the presence of disks on a spatial scale of order stellar radii, while it has the potential for further modeling. Here we present our results on two groups of stars, on young, intermediate mass, premain sequence Herbig Ae/Be stars and on a sample of massive evolved objects, the Luminous Blue Variables. We also present initial results obtained at nearinfrared wavelengths.