2005ApJ...635L..77W

We have extracted a 37 day light curve with a precision of 0.0012 mag per point for the Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars (MOST) guide star, HD 163868 (B5 Ve). Its rich frequency spectrum resembles that of a slowly pulsating B (SPB) star but, being a rapid rotator, we designate it SPBe. The 60 most significant periods lie in three distinct groups centered on 8 days and 14 and 7 hr. We demonstrate that the 14 and 7 hr periods can be modeled by two swarms of high-order, prograde sectorial g-modes (m=-1, -2), which are destabilized by the iron opacity bump. Our model also predicts a group of r-modes with periods near 2.3 days, which correspond to frequencies observed in the tail of the 8 day group. The remaining periodicities, between 7 and 11 days, cannot be explained by unstable modes in our model.