Investigating the continuum linear polarization of Be stars

In order to understand the mechanisms that govern the development of circumstellar disks surrounding classical Be stars, we use computational codes to create theoretical models of these particular objects with their gaseous environments and we compare the predicted observables to astronomical observations. In this study, we present the use of the non-LTE radiative transfer code of Sigut & Jones (2007) to examine the effect of a self-consistent thermal structure and realistic chemical composition on the polarization of the classical Be star γ Cassiopeia. Primarily, we investigate the effect of several improvements on the pioneering work of Poeckert & Marlborough (1978) in calculating the polarization levels of γ Cas. We establish best-fit models for the same observations and analyze the implications of the differences between our results and those obtained by Poeckert & Marlborough.